Ely 17-33 Beccles

Eastern Counties 1

29/09/01

The Bulls opening game in their first season in this division was a resumption of service from last seasons successes. Although struggling against the strong home pack in the early exchanges and having to slug it out 'up-front' the entire match it was the Bulls all-round game that eventually proved decisive in this keenly fought encounter.

With their opening home league game cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch last week the Bulls travelled to Ely with their early season build-up a little disjointed.

The referee for the day , Mr.Chris Webb , was a last minute call-up from a lower grade , however regardless of this he produced a satisfactory game for the limited number of spectators.

The home sides game plan was quite obvious from the opening minutes , with a very large and experienced pack , coupled with a fly-half who kicked more than he ran they relished the set-piece encounter. The only time the ball moved past the Ely stand-off was to inevitably carry out a switch move , back into the pack using their robust inside centre. While this severely tested the Bulls scrummaging and line-out , whenever the visitors started throwing the ball wide , even on occasion recklessly, their hosts had no response and generally conceded tries.

The opening try was just an example of this Ely 'Achilles heel' , after starting strongly and camping the Bulls in their own half for the opening 8 minutes with their forwards to the fore , Beccles sneaked some possession out to right winger Matt Kerry who 'skinned' his man on the outside before flat footing the Full back to touch down under the posts. Jon Puxley added the easiest of conversions.

Ely responded minutes later after a driving maul from their forwards deep in the Bulls half , released their Fly-Half who dummied his way through the mid-field for what has to be said was a very soft try.

Galvanised by this success the Ely pack reproduced an almost identical situation 10 minutes later , this time from a set-piece scrum after a series of kicks into the Beccles half , and again the Fly-half opened up the Bulls mid-field before handing off to his centre in support who crashed over under the posts. The Fly-Half converted.

This turn of events forced the Bulls to lift their efforts and adapt their tactics to suit the game in hand. This basically meant that any possession won against the home pack needed to be spun wide , as quickly as possible and every Beccles player had to get around wide in support. The wider the game could be played the better!

The response from Beccles in this form lead to a try from blindside flanker , Chris Shales. After a sustained attack from Beccles , out wide , keeping the ball alive , meant it passed through nearly every pair of hands before Shales cantered in under the posts. Puxley again converted.

This gave a half time score , in Beccles favour of 14-12 , young Reese Ling was replaced by Junior Johnstone in his debut for the Bulls in a League match.

The Bulls started to ease ahead in the second half and a couple of breaks were unlucky not to result in further tries. One in particular , a blindside move between skipper Owen Hadridge and No8 Andy Warnes lead to a chip over the despairing Ely full-back bouncing badly for the Bulls and held play up long enough for the straining home defence to cover across in time.

Trying to use the wind , now in their favour , Beccles ended up with a line-out in their favour on the 60th minute. A new line-out move , recently added to the Bulls repertoire by occasional coach Phil Anthony , produced a try for openside flanker Chris Hinsley when the home pack , parted before him and he dived over. Puxley failed to keep a 100% success rate for the game by missing the conversion.

Ely fought their way back up the pitch but equally dogged Bulls defence work usually marched them back again. After a series of turnovers up-front the Bulls again spun the ball wide for full-back Ian Turrell to hit the line at pace and round his opposite number to touch down under the posts , Puxley happily added the extra 2 points.

Ely sensing the game was slipping out of their reach rallied up-front and scored another forward driving try after a 5m scrummage on the Beccles line , but this was to no avail as with only 10 minutes left they had little chance to turn the game in their favour.

It was in fact left to the Bulls leading try scorer , right winger , Matt Kerry to finish the game off after another fine individual run following an Ely failed clearance kick lead to a chip ahead and he outstripped the covering defence to grab his second of a fine brace. Jon Puxley added his 4th conversion having a fine day with the boot on the stroke of full time.

Skipper Owen Hadridge was quite happy with the result from the day and Beccles had the largest winning margin in their League on the day , with most other results going to the home side.

Andy Warnes.

Beccles Press Officer.