Tigers sneak in by a point to retain the Percy Walker Cup

Played in glorious sunshine and supported by the group “Banter on the Balcony”, the Bulls and Tigers played out a feast of try scoring rugby in front of a decent crowd at the chicken shack.
With the game played in four quarters, both coaches treated the match as an experimental exercise. The players naturally had other ideas in what occasionally proved a feisty encounter as temperatures matched the environment.
The first quarter saw St. Ives put pre-season into practice with some excellent attacking rugby from deep. Countering from a kick receipt saw the returning Tom Watts make good ground, and good continuity saw Pete Fahey scoring on his debut.
Another swift ball transference left Albiee Tayedzerwa free to scamper into the corner for his first of the season. Paul Ashbridge landed a difficult conversion from wide out.
The Bulls created two more opportunities, but early season twitches saw them go astray.
The second quarter saw Ely back in the game. Ives attempting to the run the ball from deep again were dispossessed. A good counter saw Ely cross in the corner, also well converted.
Still Ives were creating chances, but not able to capitalise.
The third quarter saw both sides making many changes to test combinations.
Early on, a turnover saw Michael Wright release Ollie Raine who sprinted towards the line. He drew the last man and put Tayedzerwa into the corner for his second.
Ely then began to take advantage of some disorganisation in the Bulls’ ranks and camped in the hosts’ half. A clearance kick was run back, the Tigers proving they could also score from deep, with a kick, chase and favourable bounce up the wing.
Soon after, an attack by the Bulls was turned over on the half way line. Once again, Ely attacked wide out and were rewarded with another try down the flank. Both were converted.
Ives fought back with great spirit and battered the visitors’ line. Josh Dear, who had a fine game at the foundation of a great scrummaging effort and in the loose, was on hand to barge over for a converted try.
Ely came back once again. Another clearance kick was well fielded by the Ely winger who outpaced the follow up defence to score in the corner. The Ely kicker struck a fourth accurate conversion to take the lead by a point.
The last 8 minutes were spent in the Ely half. Tayedzerwa thought he had scored his hattrick, but was brought back for a foot in touch. And with the final play of the game, the Ives were held up over the line.
New skipper Ollie Bartlett was pleased with the performance. “It was good preparation for the upcoming league fixtures. There were some parts of our game which went very well indeed. And the bits that didn’t are easy to fix. We also took a look at some new combinations and which worked better than others. It was great to put pre-season into practice.”