BELOW PAR ELKS SUFFER AGAIN ON THE ROAD

Classic Drinks Man of the Match – JJ Connolly.

The Elks resumed their league travels with the trip down the very wet and windy M1 to Old Northamptonians after returning to winning ways the week previously with the home win over local rivals Newark.

Although the heavy rain forecast held off for most of the afternoon the high winds never ceased, making difficult handling conditions for both teams and never allowing either side to play expansive rugby. There were reports emanating from Twickenham that the fare on offer was so poor that the crowd had resorted to making paper planes to see who could get them the farthest. The fare served up by the Elks was equally as dire but the plane hobby was unlikely to catch on as the wind was sure to blow every one far out of sight.

The Elks lined up with the latest member of the Taylor dynasty with Lewis at fullback joining elder brother Dan who was to operate at outside centre. Andrew Chapman was filling in on the wing as injury or unavailability deprived the Elks of Greg Taylor, Alan Cook, Jono Falls, Sam Patel, Bryn Vernon and Ben Gatehouse. Paul Shoebridge returned to the side to partner Adam Stoker in the second row.

Starting up the slope the Elks came under early pressure from ONs who adapted quicker to the conditions and were lucky to escape early punishment when on six minutes a try was disallowed following a knock on. However, two minutes later they were on their way as the Elks were punished for going over the top at a ruck and were then pushed back a further ten metres for dissent from where ONs flyhalf, Rose, converted the penalty to leave them 3-0 in front. The dissent issue is becoming a disturbing feature of the Elks’ game and the coaching staff need to get the players to realise that it is never going to pay dividends in rugby.

The score seemed to galvanise the Elks as they took the lead some fifteen minutes later. JJ Connolly had tested the home defence on a number of occasions with nice breaks from flyhalf but had been denied by the covering tackler on each. Following some interplay between the back row of Steve Quinn, Adam Corcoran and Rich Burne the Elks set up a ruck in midfield. Scrumhalf Joel Haigh extricated the ball from the mountain of players and fed Connolly who dummied the ONs’ defence and then looked to pop the ball to Dan Taylor, in support on his left shoulder, but dummied and went under the posts. He drop kicked the conversion to give the Elks a 3-7 lead.

Hoping this was to prove the turning point for the Elks the visiting support was to be disappointed. The lineout, normally an Elks strong point, was a disaster zone which produced the ball on one occasion throughout the whole game. Without this supply route the Elks were destined to live off scraps and ultimately come second. The home side entered the fifteen minutes of the half in the ascendancy and only heroic defence by Quinn and Corcoran prevented a score. But the break beckoning ONs finally breached the visiting defence when quick ball from a ruck was fed out wide to the left where ONs livewire hooker Briddon was on hand to touch down in the corner. The try went unconverted leaving the home side with an 8-7 lead at the interval.

The second half was not one of the Elks more memorable performances where they failed to make the use of the considerable slope and their game never really posed ONs any problems. The Elks fell further behind on fifty two minutes when Burne charged down an attempted chip over the defence only to see Dan Taylor pick the ball up in an offside position some twenty metres out. Rose again gratefully accepted the opportunity and drilled the ball through the posts with the aid of the wind at his back to extend the lead to 11-7.

Burne immediately left the field with a knee problem to be replaced by Simon Bennett in a straight swap at No.8. The youngster has made a number of appearances this season and again impressed with his work around the park.

The Elks’ next positive passage of play saw them awarded a penalty thirty metres from the home posts but Connolly drove the attempt into the left hand upright and back into play. In the attempt to regain possession of the ball the Elks handled in the ruck and were penalised. Rudkin then added to the misery by being further penalised for dissent on two occasions which moved the ball some three metres from the half way line. Once again Rose demonstrated his kicking prowess converting the penalty after sixty minutes to move the score on to 14-7. A further change was made shortly after at hooker where Marc Moore was replaced with Jason Falls but ONs continued to hold the upper hand in the scrum and lineout. After sixty three minutes blindside Quinn left the field after a knock to the head, to be replaced by Rory Maddocks.

With five minute left the scoring was completed when the Elks were penalised for holding on in the tackle and Rose added to his tally to leave the score at 17-7. With a misfiring lineout and scrum that failed to impose any dominance the half backs did their best to rescue matters but had little chance to release theirs backs with good quick ball.

The next few weeks see some tough looking fixtures and coach Scott Rudkin will be keen to see that front row men Moore, Falls and Holland all recover from the knocks they carry before they entertain Paviors at home in the next match in two weeks time.

Match report by Rochelle O’Dwyer.