ELKS POOR RUN CONTINUES

Classic Drinks Man of the Match – Mat McGuire

For the third week running Ilkeston built up an early lead only to see it overhauled as the game wore on and again they returned empty handed.

This is a good Derby side, who are in a rich vein of form, and it was always a big ask for the Elks to claim any reward from their visit to Haslams. The manner in which the defeat came however, will concern the side that seems to have lost confidence after such a vibrant first half of the season which saw them ever present in the top quarter of the table. Being denied the ability to pick a settled side, due to injuries and unavailability, carries much of the blame, as does the long enforced lay-off which has seen the Elks lose their momentum and a good win is needed to restore that confidence.

For the first twenty minutes it did indeed seem that the Elks had rediscovered their early season form as they established a 3-13 lead. The first points came after only three minutes courtesy of an Andy Thompson drop-goal after Scott Rudkin and Alan Cook had manufactured a turnover in Derby’s midfield.

Direct from the restart Rich Burne cleanly took the ball and fed Greg Taylor who sped into the Derby twenty-two. Rudkin was on hand to take his pass and move the ball on to Cook for his first try of the season close to the posts. Joel Haigh converted to give the visitors a ten point lead inside the first ten minutes.

As Derby recovered from the shock the game descended into a period of aerial ping pong with Derby being the more accurate and the punting giving them the territorial advantage. The home side eventually put together a number of phases which earned them a penalty and Burrows duly converted to open their account at 3-10 after thirteen minutes.

The score invigorated the home side who elected to keep the ball in hand and attack from deep. However, their spirit of adventure came unstuck after seventeen minutes when Rudkin’s midfield tackle earned the Elks a penalty for holding which Haigh converted to move the score on to 3-13. The advantage was short lived when the visitors transgressed direct from the restart and Derby were awarded a penalty which was put into the corner for a lineout close to the try line. The ball was duly secured at the front and a series of drives sucked in the defence before the ball was released to Marlow who crashed over between the posts. Burrows took the simple conversion and Derby were back into the game at 10-13.

As the home side turned the screw on the visitors the pressure began to take its toll on the Elks. Their normally reliable lineout simply failed to function with the home side stealing the lion’s share of the throw. Poor first up tackles were also proving costly and enabled Derby’s runners to counter and establish field position. The only area where the Elks enjoyed superiority was the scrum where the front row of Mat McGuire, Marc Moore and Jason Falls secured possession and enabled hard working scrum-half Haigh to try and establish a platform with swift delivery, sniping runs and well executed box kicks.

The back row of Steve Quinn, Adam Corcoran and Burne worked hard to keep Derby at bay but generally found themselves on the back foot and forced to concede penalties. From one such infringement Derby again forced the ball into the corner, secured the lineout and mauled the ball over to take themselves into the lead at 15-13. The task was made more demanding when the Elks were reduced to fourteen men after Burne was shown the yellow card just before halftime for illegally impeding a Derby attacker.

The start of the second half saw Quinn retire with a back injury to be replaced by Simon Bennett. The Elks started brightly but gifted Derby a try ten minutes into the half when a speculative kick in behind the Elks’ defence was not dealt with and was hastily cleared into the arms of Glover who plucked the ball from the air and stormed over unchallenged. Burrows again converted to move their lead onto 22-13. With the Elks forced into chasing the game promising breaks from Dan Taylor, Paul Shoebridge and Lewis Taylor all came to nothing as Derby’s well organised defence always had men to spare.

Paul Stevenson came on to replace Thompson after twenty seven minutes of the half but his first contribution was deemed a deliberate knock-on and as on two previous occasions Derby put the penalty into the corner, took the lineout and drove over in the corner with Goodman emerging with the ball. Burrows failed with the conversion to leave the score 27-13. Stevenson was again involved five minutes later when his early tackle earned him the Elks’ second yellow card of the game.

The final score of the game came ten minutes from time when, once again, the Elks failed to clear their lines, missed several first up tackles and allowed Marlow to claim his second try of the game. At 34-13 behind the Elks at last found some momentum and launched a number of assaults on the Derby line but, as in recent weeks, it was too late to have any impact on the result.

With eight games left, five of which are against teams below them in the league, the Elks probably need another three wins to leave themselves safe and the first of these is next week when they play at Market Bosworth k.o. 14:15