ELKS WIN BUT STRUGGLE IN GALE

Man of the Match - Ben Newton

The conditions were against both sides who look to play open and flowing rugby. The wind made kicking a lottery and line out throws more difficult than normal. The team to make the better of the elements would stand the greater chance of victory.

It was a special day for Ilkeston as the home side fielded four sets of brothers, the Fall's, Taylor’s, Mahoney’s and Newton’s. All brothers played their part in this first versus fourth encounter. Ashbourne themselves had three brothers in their line up.The league positions suggested that today’s game would be closer than the Elks first three games and so it was to prove.

Ilkeston put Ashbourne under early pressure and were awarded a penalty. But the decision to run the penalty in front of the posts proved unsuccessful and let Ashbourne of the hook. The Elks kept the pressure on Ashbourne and with a line out steal by Stoker led to a ruck. Scrum half Chris Kemsley picked up the ball dummied, side stepped and sprinted his way to the line for the first score of the match with only four minutes on the clock. Jono Falls stepped up and judged the wind perfectly to make the conversion.

The Elks front row of Gordon Pringle, Jason Falls, and Craig Charlton were causing their opposite numbers problems in the early exchanges. Unfortunately the Elks allowed the visitors to stay in the game courtesy of loosing too much ball in contact and not holding onto passes. Ilkeston had some good early passages of play with full back Falls linking up with centre Alan Cook, and No.8 Steve Quinn but the Ashbourne defence was sound.

Steve Quinn, giving another outstanding performance, had his game cut short three minutes before half time with a knee injury. Quinn’s replacement, Adrian Montague, scored with his first touch last week, was not to repeat this feat but made a great contribution to the game.

Ashbourne's defence was constantly infringing at the breakdowns and lucky not to have suffered players binned for killing the ball and coming in from the side. Ilkeston’s pressure throughout the first half was not rewarded until the fortieth minute when Kemsley scored his second try after a 5 metre scrum. Falls converted to bring the score at the break to 14-0.

In the second half the Elks, playing up the slope, lost shape and Ashbourne spoiling tactics were very effective. The visitors started exerting pressure as the Elks had in the first half. With confidence growing Ilkeston had to defend attacks from both forwards and backs. Pressure told and after ten minutes Ashbourne’s Claire went over for an unconverted try to bring the score to 14-5.

Josh Newton came off and was replaced by Greg Taylor making his Ilkeston debut. The Elks made an attack from kick off and again the Ashbourne forwards were penalised killing the ball. Falls stepped up and put the ball between the posts to increase their lead to 17-5.

Ashbourne changed one of the front row trio and their scrum steadied and started to dominate. With their tails up and the Elks game looking scrappy, the home side were pinned in their own half. Ashbourne’s pressure resulted in a second unconverted try after 20 minutes to close the gap to 17-10.

Ilkeston were stung into action after Scott Rudkin earned a penalty in his own 22. Ball now went to hand and Rudkin, Cook and Taylor linked to show what the Ilkeston faithful had come to expect. Taylor created the gap with a sidestepping run and with support from Ben Newton and Dan Mahoney took play deep into the Ashbourne half. Another penalty resulted and but Falls failed to convert and the final remained 17-10.