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Cantabs 2s continued their run of form with an assertive 60 - 7 win away to Ely Development.
Beast and Cyril stepped into the front row, whilst Ollie Townsend returned at fly half.
Cantabs kicked off with the wind behind them and began the game at a frenetic pace. Whilst Ely looked to target runners tight to the side of the breakdown Cantabs looked to exploit the wider channels with ball in hand. However in the first 20 mins Cantabs lacked the precision and accuracy to finish and some wayward passing in the wide channels meant was coughed up all to easily and the pace of the game was interrupted by a series of scrums.
Fortunately the Cantabs pack was able to match Ely in the set piece and as the game Developed Cyril was able snaffle a couple of balls against the head in key positions.
Ben made the first decisive break of the game, breaking away down the right hand touch line but his offload inside failed to find hands and Cantabs support players had to scramble to secure the ball. The ball was quickly recycled and moved to the left, were a grubbed through was mishit, rebounding off of various legs before ending up over the try line for Jamie to pounce on. Due to lack of a recognised goal kicker, Rich Ford stepped up and slotted the conversion and Cantabs were away and on the board 7-0.
Cantabs regathering kick off and returned to their attacking play, an out the back move to the left looked to have created an overlap on the far side off the pitch and with the line at his mercy Rick managed to fumble the catch forward and over the line, a let off for Ely.
Cantabs work rate in attack and defence had really stepped up from last week and Steve, Matt and Tozer were working well to chop down opposition runners and Will doing some great work in scramble defence but a few soft penalties handed the momentum to Ely. Fortunately Cantabs line out was functioning beautifully, with Steve disrupting and stealing ball with regularity.
Further tries from Xav, Zandy and Matt saw the bonus point secured before halftime time.
Cantabs were ready early for the second half to commence coming on in the row for Ollie and Gideon replacing Rick on the wing. The restart was gathered cleanly (not always a guarentee) and Rich broke through a few tackles before going to ground. The speed of ball from the ruck was improved in the second half, with effective clearing giving Will extra space to deliver to Ollie ( or wannabe fly half Tozer in the wide channels).
A gap down the left wing was exploited by Gideon who turned on the afterburners to round the defence and dot down under the posts for his first try for Cantabs.
Rich took a break and Charlie came on in his place. Ely were now trying to halt Cantabs progress wide by pressurising Ollie but this left gaps around the fringes which Will exploited to burst through. He was caught and dragged down 10m short but was able to pop to Ollie in support to add to Cantabs collection.
A poor collection from the restart put Cantabs under pressure and as Cantabs tried to halt Ely progress Will took a knock to the head and withdrawn, with Rich returning to the field. From the resulting scrum Cantabs pack surged forwards but Elys scrum half was just able to clear the ball where a slight gap allowed their 10 to sneak through for a try which was duly converted. 43-7.
The game was finished off with flourish from Xav, Zandy, Charlie & Jamie, leaving the final score at 60-7
The 2s now have a rest week before facing Sawston. A few things to work on, especially restarts but the structure was much better and it is good to see the team gelling. Let's make sure we get down to training to continue this improvement.
MOTM, was a nightmare for Ely in defence and grabbed himself a brace, Zandy
DOTD for a spectacular knock on over the line, Rick Peters
Tries (10): Faed (2), Pryce, Touschek (2), Neasham (2), Emmanuel, Townsend, Deller
Conversions (5): Ford (4), Neasham