Ealing Trailfinders vs Dragons

Match Report

Ealing Trailfinders stayed top of British and Irish Cup Pool 5 with an eight-try win over the Dragons Premiership Select.

The result means they remain in first place, five points clear of Yorkshire Carnegie, who beat Bedford Blues 29-12 at Goldington Road. As such Ben Ward’s side require one point from their match away to Carnegie at Scarborough RFC next Saturday to progress in first place.

Ealing Trailfinders didn’t hang around from the start and they were into double figures before the 10-minute mark after a brace of tries from Alun Walker.

Frist he dummied and dived over from close range after a good break from James Cordy-Redden and the two Luke’s, Carter and Peters. Then he finished off a rolling maul after the scrum had won a penalty that was kicked to touch.

The backline began to come into the match more and Carter finished a counter-attack that was started by Rayn Smid and carried on by Harry Casson.

Two minutes later Peters hit a strong line to break the Dragons’ defence and his partner in the centres, Aled Jenkins was on his shoulder to finish off the move.

Ealing Trailfinders’ greater experience told throughout the first half and their intensity in defence helped them hold out as the Dragons pressed hard the end of the half, most notably when centre Connor Edwards broke the line.

There was little the defence was able to do when Edwards repeated the trick early in the second half to open the Dragons’ scoring, but Ealing Trailfinders quickly re-imposed themselves on the match.

Walker completed his hat-trick with another close-range effort and then Peters finished off another backs move that swept from their 22 to the try-line.

Dragons hit back with tries from Barney Nightingale and Henri Williams, but they were book-ended with efforts from Rhys Lawrence, who had the last word just before the stroke of fulltime.

Scorers
Ealing Trailfinders
Tries (Walker 2, 6, 52 Carter 22, Jenkins 25, Peters 54, Lawrence 67, 79), Conversions (Daniels 2, 6, 23, 25, 52, 54, 67, 79)
Dragons Premiership Select
Tries (Edwards 42, Nightingale 72, Henri Williams 77), Conversions (Prosser 72, Robson 77)

Ealing Trailfinders
Luke Daniels, Will Davies, Aled Jenkins, Luke Peters, James Cordy-Redden, Ben Ward, Luke Carter; Will Davis, Alun Walker, Alex Penny, Harry Casson, Glen Townson, Willie Ryan, Arthur Ellis, Rayn Smid
Reserves
Rhys Lawrence, James Gibbons, Lewis Thiede, Chris York, Mark Bright, Josh Davies, Lewis Jones

Dragons Premiership Select
Josh Prosser, Joe Goodchild, Connor Edwards, Barney Nightingale, Matthew Powell, Arwel Robson, Charlie Davies; John Lavender, Darran Harris, Craig Mitchell (capt), Joe Davies, Ashley Sweet, James Thomas, Nathan Hudd, Andrew Waite
Reserves
Alun Rees, Keagan Bale, Chris Coleman, Henri Williams, Max Williams, Owen Davies, James Dixon

Referee – Fergus Kirby
Attendance – 433
STORM Watches Man of the Match – Harry Casson