Elks make it five wins on the trot

The first ten minutes was littered with mistakes as both sides knocked on and line outs became a lottery. Elks settled better and had good possession through the forwards with Ben wells, Chris Tipton, Marc Moore and Jake Smithurst driving hard, Newark were penalised in front of the posts and Joel Haigh opened the scoring with a well struck penalty, 0-3 after 12 mins.

Newark responded well with their scrum half making a break down the blind side, he chipped ahead but luckily for the Elks he knocked on gathering the ball just before the line.

Elks cleared well but Newark ran back from deep and made ground to half way where Tipton tackled well and Elks gained a scrum, Tipton picked up at the base and made good ground, Haigh collected the ball and chipped into the Newark 22 for an opposition line out, Elks stole the ball and attacked, Newark were penalised at the breakdown and the referee produced a yellow card on 30 mins.

Despite the extra man it took nearly the full ten minutes to gain an advantage as knock on’s, lost line outs and other mistakes made it very scrappy,
Dan Taylor launched an attack and Newark were penalised, Lamb kicked to the 22 and Smithurst took clean ball, Elks moved the ball into midfield and recycled quickly, Haigh collected the ball and found a gap to score under the posts, he converted his own try making it 0-19 after 39 mins.

Elks started the second half well with good spells of possession but silly mistakes halted any real momentum, play was held up as the Newark No8 left the field injured after a strong first half.

The game became even more scrappy and was not helped by persistent stops in play as the referee seemed to blow up for the slightest infringement despite the atrocious playing conditions.

Elks came on the attack through Wells and the ball was recycled to D Taylor, he made a break down the left and as play broke down Newark were offside, Lamb kicked to ten metres out but the line out was lost and Newark counter attacked, they threw a hopeful long pass which was intercepted by Haigh and he outran the chasing defence to score near the posts, again he converted his own try to make it 0-17 after 75 mins.

Newark never gave up and got a deserved score after 77 mins when their flanker caught a loose line out throw and darted over, extras missed making it 5-17.

Newark had the last attack with a line out on the Elks 22, the ball was turned over but Elks were penalised and Tipton received a rather harsh yellow card, both sets of forwards battled out the closing minutes as the rain got heavier and play became even more difficult, no further scores were registered leaving the final score at 5-17.

Although not a spectacle of rugby this was a hard fought game by both sides in poor conditions and the Elks deserved their victory making it 5 wins on the spin.

Several forwards played well with Ben Wells the stand out performer in the pack, however the Man of the Match goes to Joel Haigh who bagged all of the Elks points and played well tactically throughout the game.

Next week sees the final game before the Xmas break against Northampton Old Scouts and the Elks will be looking to continue a great winning run, come down and cheer the lads on and enjoy a mince pie or two! Kick off 2.15pm