ELKS MAINTAIN POSITION AT HEAD OF TABLE

Classic Wines and Spirits Man of the Match – Greg Taylor.

The Elks continued their promotion push with an impressive victory over local rivals Moderns at the Stute on Saturday. The dry, if somewhat windy, conditions enabled the home side to play to their strengths and the ten tries recorded were testament to the pace and skill on display.

The visitors, who were third from bottom at the start, never really coped with the host’s game plan and their ability to move the ball swiftly from all areas of the park. The scoring was evenly spaced through the game with a slight blip in proceedings either side of half-time when Moderns had their brightest spell and scored two converted tries.

Greg Taylor led the charge with three tries, followed by Josh Newton with two and one each for Dan Mahoney, Scott Rudkin, Rich Burne, Steve Mahoney and elder brother Dan Taylor who also grabbed a conversion. JJ Connolly added a penalty and three conversions.

The Elks could not have wished for a better start when playing down the slope and with the wind at their back, a turnover in midfield provided ball for Adam Stoker to feed Dan Mahoney who raced into the corner with less than a minute on the clock. Six minutes later an Adrian Montague charge through the visitor’s midfield earned a penalty which Connolly converted to move the score on to 8–0. Form the restart Burne, back in action after missing the last two games after an argument with an angle grinder, secured the ball and scrum-half Chris Kemsley’s box kick found Dan Mahoney on hand to dispossess his opposite number. A quick transfer of the ball to centre Alan Cook, who made a swift break, before releasing the ball to midfield partner Rudkin who jinked in under posts. Connolly’s conversion took the score on to 15–0 with only nine minutes of the half gone.

Moderns could have crumpled but, to their credit, they fought their way into the game and required the Elk’s defence to report for duty. Tackles by Mat McGuire, Bryn Locke and Craig Charlton rescued tricky situations and denied the visitors. Having repulsed Moderns’ best efforts the Elks worked their way into the opposition twenty two. Although they wasted two opportunities due to indifferent handling a solid five metre scrum gave Burne the chance to pick up from the base and power over. Connolly again converted to move the score on to 22–0. The home side should have increased the lead from the restart when a searing break from Greg Taylor put Newton clear, only for the winger to spill the ball. However, he redeemed himself minutes later when he finished off a flowing move involving Rudkin, Burne, Gordon Pringle and Greg Taylor. Connolly was successful with the conversion to leave the Elks 29–0 ahead. As the half drew to a close Moderns made the most of a lapse in concentration by the Elks to force their way close to the home try line. With the put in to the scrum the Elks should have cleared their lines but a misunderstanding allowed the visitors scrum-half to snaffle up the loose ball and score. With Gaunt’s successful conversion the visitors had at least opened their account with the score 29–7. On the stroke of halftime another finely timed entry into the line by Greg Taylor brought him the first of his three tries. The missed conversion left the home side with a healthy 34–7 lead at the break.

With the benefit of the slope and wind Moderns started the second half briskly and their cause was helped by the inability of the Elks to realise that high clearance kicks were not the answer into the strong wind. The pressure was applied through various phases and their efforts rewarded after ten minutes when a converted try earned them their final score to move them on to a 34–14 deficit. The period of constant defending had taken its toll and fresh legs were introduced with Steve Quinn replacing Montague, Dan Taylor replacing Dan Mahoney and, after a further five minutes, Marc Moore replacing Pringle with McGuire moving back into his accustomed position of loose-head prop.

The home side gathered their concentration and started to reassert themselves with a breakout from Burne, supported by Rudkin and Kemsley. Moderns survived only for the clearance kick to be fielded by Newton who moved the ball infield to Dan Taylor. He linked with younger brother Greg who drove forward through desperate defenders. The ball was swiftly recycled from the ruck and found Steve Mahoney loitering in midfield. A shimmy of the hips and change of pace took him through the Moderns defence to touch down, the scoreboard now showing 39–14.

As a contest the game was over and it was simply a matter of how many points the Elks could record in the remaining twelve minutes. A further four tries followed as the visitors tired. Superb handling and support play featured in all four with backs and forwards offloading and exchanging passes that constantly changed the angle and area of attack. Newton claimed his second try after good approach work from Quinn, Moore and Cook had prised the defence open yet again. Greg Taylor recorded his second following a series of dynamic pick and drives from Charlton, McGuire and Stoker led to a finely timed final pass from Burne.

Direct form the restart Dan Taylor got on the score sheet when his speed finished a powerful break from Rudking. Fittingly, Man of the Match Greg Taylor completed his scoring with his hat trick after Steve Mahoney, Dan Taylor and Locke had torn the visitor’s defence to shreds for the final time.