Elks canned as they fail on the road again.

Classic Drinks Man of the Match – Ellis Hallam.

Ilkeston made the trip to Wellingborough on Saturday and proved yet again that travelling does not suit them as they performed well below par and must consider themselves fortunate to have salvaged a bonus point for coming within seven points of the victors. It was, by some way, the poorest performance of this season.
Continuity was lacking and the opening forty minutes saw more unforced errors than would be generally acceptable across a whole season. As a result the Elks only occasionally found any rhythm and rarely managed to put sustained periods of pressure on the home side. The scrum and lineout generally functioned well but never achieved an edge and too often found themselves having to play from inside their own half. The handling of the backs too often let them down and when they did create space, notably through brothers Greg and Dan Taylor with Ellis Hallam, lack of support, or failure to execute the final pass, let the home side off the hook.
The crucial area of the breakdown, where the backrow of Steve Quinn, Adam Corcoran and Beau Carney are normally so dominant did not ignite, and the Elks were required to play off scraps rarely generating second and third phase ball. The omens were not good from early in the game when a promising attacking position was turned into a seven point deficit after only six minutes. Flyhalf JJ Connolly’s floated pass was plucked out of the air by Meyer who sprinted out of his own twenty two and scored between the posts for Armstrong to convert.
The Elks quickly made amends when scrumhalf Joel Haigh and Corcoran took play into the Wellingborough half to earn a penalty which Connolly drilled into the corner. Paul Shoebridge secured the lineout and the forwards mauled the ball over for Corcoran to claim the try.
From the restart Dan Taylor shoed pace and power to storm through a gap and feed Hallam, As the line beckoned Hallam’s pass to Quinn was intercepted by Mears who cleared the danger. As the game switched from end to end failure to deal with a simple kick into the twenty two cost the visitors dearly. Greg Taylor was caught in possession and penalised for holding on. Wellingborough tapped, drove the ball on and Fordham forced his way over to put the home side 12-5 up with twenty five minutes gone.
As the Elks tried to inject some pace into their game basic handling errors and poor decision making let them down and forced them to play from deep. When Quinn received a yellow card to spend ten minutes in the sin-bin the task became even harder as the home side immediately took advantage of the extra man and Shipman took advantage of poor defending to force his way over from a five metre scrum from which the conversion stretched their lead to 19-5.
With the half time whistle approaching Connolly reduced the arrears to 19-8 with a penalty after Greg Taylor and Simon Bennett had taken play close to the Wellingborough line and forced a penalty for holding on. This was the final action of a disappointing half and the Elks huddled to try and regroup for the second.
The visitors gave themselves hope five minutes into the half when, for once, they managed to recycle the ball through a series of phases. Corcoran’s grubber kick in behind the rush defence was not dealt with by Maher. His attempted clearance was charged down by Greg Taylor and Hallam scooped up the rebound and raced in for a try converted by Connolly. At 19-15 the Elks were surprisingly back in the game but the tendency to switch off immediately cost them again. Penalised from the restart the home side missed the kick but Connolly’s clearance failed to find touch and fall into the arms of the grateful Smart. Avoiding several attempts at tackles, which would have looked out of place in touch rugby, he jinked his way into the corner untouched restoring Wellingborough’s lead to 24-15.
Dan Mahoney, surprisingly omitted from the starting line up, replaced Haigh with Lewis Taylor moving to scrumhalf and Mahoney moving in to his normal position on the wing. The younger Taylor’s first touch from the base of a scrum provided dividends as he broke to feed elder brother Dan who completed the family affair when feeding Greg for a try converted by Connolly.
With the score at 24-22 and thirty minutes left on the clock the travelling supporters were hopeful of an unlikely result given what they had witnessed earlier but it was not to be. The home side did not panic and used the boot of Armstrong and Seaton to pin the Elks deep in their own half. Try as they might the Elks could not impose pressure in the opposition half as determined Wellingborough tackling denied them the time and space to construct any meaningful phases and in the end they had to settle for a single losing bonus point after a desperately poor performance.