Ilkeston Colts 38 - 7 Long Eaton Colts

The Elks welcomed Long Eaton to The Stute on Friday for the first of this season’s colts matches.
A scrum agasint the LE put in, allowed our backs to break down the blind side, some agile footwork seeing
centre OP beating 3 defenders to go in for our first score. 5-0 Elks. Ten minutes of hard work from LE meant they
were soon down by our try line and a poor penalty given away for offside at the their line out meant we gifted
them platform to score from, 7-5 to Long Eaton . Elks played them selves back into the match and after 30 mins a
lovely ball down the backs line saw Dev pass back inside to Dennie,who hit a lovely line and went in to score.
Euan converts, Elks 12-7 up. And that was how it was at half time, having played up hill, a fairly even match
albeit for a dominant Ilkeston scrum.

Two mins into the 2nd half saw a powerful break from Jake our No8 off the back of another scrum, beating 4
players and making 20m intot the opposition half. Through a couple off phases then the ball comes down the line
miss pass behind 12 to Dennie as he joins the line and an off load to our winger and the Elks are in for another try.
Elks 17-7 and you can see the tempo of the game is starting to have its toll on the opposition.

A few phases later and a hard line back inside from OP once again, leads to a try under the posts. Oscar M, now
playing 10 converts, ELks 24-7. Four minutes later and a tired looking attempt at a miss pass from the LE fly half
allows Deniie to pounce and with 5m head start from the half way line, they were never going to catch up,
we score under the posts and convert, Ellks 31-7. Our forwards then played a period where they just carried
and rucked down the field, phase after relentless phase, eventually powering over the line. Oscar then in a rush,
decided not to wait for his tee and subsequently slotted the ball over from a drop kick...class & slightly cocky!
Ilkeston final winners 38-7.

A good solid start from a colts side who have work very hard as a unit over the summer. Tougher opposition will
come along this season, but this side has great potential and team spirit.

Andrew Evans & the Colts Coaching