Paviors RFC vs Ilkeston RUFC Match Report

The Elks visited local rivals Paviors and after an even first half struggled to gain momentum in the second half eventually losing 27-7.

The first half was a fairly dour affair with neither side finding any cutting edge resulting in most of the play between the ten metre lines. Paviors missed a shot at goal after 30 mins and it looked like being scoreless at half time until Paviors broke blind, they chipped ahead and a fortuitous bounce wrong footed the Elks defence allowing Paviors to kick ahead and score on 38 mins, conversion added making it 7-0 at half time.

Elks needed a good second half but things got worse as Tom Pottinger was injured with a suspected broken collar bone, replaced by Hugh Smith on 42 mins.

The Elks then had a good spell of possession and territory and following a break by Alex Ayres moved the ball left to Joe Marsden, he rounded the last defender to score in the corner, the conversion was superbly struck by Joel High to level the scores at 7-7 after 46 mins.

Unfortunately that was as good as it got for the Elks and despite a great effort by the lads they could not find any cutting edge in the backs to pierce a stubborn Paviors defence.

Paviors had a golden ten minute spell starting after 62 minutes where they scored 20 unanswered point through 2 more converted tries and 2 penalties.

Elks tried in vain to chase the game but too often wrong options and poor discipline halted any real progress, final score 27-7.

This was another game when despite being in contention at half time the Elks were very disorganised in the second half and struggled to create scoring chances, one player who did stand out especially in the first half was Joel Haigh and he gets the Man of the Match award.

Next week sees a home fixture against Bugbrooke who always provide a tough challenge, Elks will be working hard in midweek to iron out any issues and come out firing next Saturday.