Two’s Triumph at Paviors

Never an easy place to visit the 2nd XV travelled to The Burntstump for a friendly against their counterparts at Paviors and came away with the spoils.

Within minutes of the kick off the visitors lost Ben Marshall to a nasty facial injury as true to form “Barbados” tackled someone’s foot! This brought Luke Bibby into the fray earlier than anticipated to join an already re-arranged back row that included Ellis Hallam.

None the less it was the Elks that had the early pressure and it was clear from the start that they would enjoy the ascendancy at scrum time and it was from one of many wins against the head that witnessed the backs take good advantage of some space to put Jack Townsend clear.

Townsend was held up at the line and from the resulting 5 metre scrum the dominant Ilkeston pack controlled their drive to allow Number 8 and eventual Man of the Match, Andy Coburn to score a push over try which remained unconverted.

Less than 5 minutes later Coburn was again on hand to score but this time he appeared on the end of a backs move to touch down in the corner. A solid Ilkeston scrum laid a solid foundation for several driving runs by Paul Stevenson and Liam Smithurst…realising that he had an overlap Chris Hallam at Fly Half demanded quick ball which was duly delivered by the forwards and Joel Clay…the ball was moved swiftly through hands to Hugh Smith who committed the final defender and off loaded to Coburn who duly touched down.

On 25 minutes further good work up front led to an Ilkeston penalty under the Paviors posts and Steven Lewis stepped forward to secure the points for a 13 – 0 lead.

Paviors then had a period of pressure during which they scored their first try of the game which was negated almost immediately as a Lewis penaly drove the Elks pack deep into home territory. The subsequent catch and drive from the line out was poorly defended by Paviors and Bibby took advantage to peel of the back of the drive to score, spurning an overlap in the process to sidestep the loan defender.

The conversion was missed but Ilkeston still took an 18 – 5 lead into the break.

The second half heralded a consistent string of penalties by the visitors which yielded territory to the home side and resulted in the official warning Hallam of the Ellis variety about his ability to infringe at the breakdown…to be fair law interpretation by this time had become interesting and favourable to say the least and it was Coburn who was next to fall foul of the referees attention which resulted in a yellow card and a 10 minute rest!

2 minutes later and Paviors made the extra man count as yet another debatable decision was compounded by sloppy defending that allowed Paviors to create an overlap and score a converted try.

Despite being a man short Ilkeston immediately took the game back to Paviors and spent some time camped within the hosts 22…the seven man scrum were still dominant; so much so that Paviors, under severe pressure struggled to clear their lines. Time and again at the scrum a Paviors put in was disrupted and not for the first time Ilkeston won turnover ball. Just in time for Coburn to re-join them thus the result was somewhat inevitable as what 7 men were doing comfortably 8 would do even easier and the home side pack were marched back to allow the Number 8 to complete his hat trick. The try was converted and Ilkeston led 25 - 12 on 65 minutes.

Better was to come 5 minutes later as yet another Paviors put in was turned over by the Ilkeston pack, this time under their own posts. Lewis drove his clearance kick to half way and an aggressive chase by John Booth, on for Kyle Booth, was rewarded by a kind bounce. As Booth was tackled, Smith was on hand to take the pass and described as looking like a “Petrified Prisoner” by his team mates he always had enough in hand to stay ahead of his pursuers, out sprinting the defence comfortably from half way to score under the posts.

The try was again converted and with 10 minutes left Ilkeston led 32 – 12.

Jason Falls replaced Si Hallam at this stage and although the events are unconnected the remaining 10 minutes of the game witnessed Paviors cross the line twice as the visitors lost concentration, thus the final score of 32 – 24 was somewhat flattering to the home side.

The front row of Dean Chapman, Gordon Pringle and Si Hallam were dominant and showed little mercy to their counterparts. Liam Smithurst competed well at the lineout and with his second row partner Dan Rollins carried the ball well. The back row of Ellis Hallam, Bibby and Coburn were superior with Hallam in particular, as always, adding great value to the side through his experience. The half back pairing of Clay and Chris Hallam gelled well with the latter a constant handful with his sniping runs. Stevenson and Smith provided a solid midfield both boasting high tackle counts, Townsends pace was a threat and Lewis was assured at full back.

If there has to be a criticism it lies in a lack of concentration in defence which switched “comfortably” between being superb to being very poor; the rush defence in particularly needing work as it yielded scores to the opposition.

Never the less this was a pretty solid, encouraging and entertaining performance by Ilkeston which was at times a joy to watch.