Ealing Trailfinders vs London Welsh

Match Report

Ealing Trailfinders held their nerve as the clocked ticked down to take play from their try-line to the London Welsh 22 where Jonny Bentley scored a penalty to earn Ben Ward’s side a losing bonus point.

It means that Ealing Trailfinders stretch the gap over Moseley to three points at the bottom of the Greene King IPA Championship with three matches remaining.

London Welsh made the early running and a Ryan Glynn chip nearly set Ryan Hodson up for a try, but Carwyn Jones made an important tackle on the line. Even so Hodson made the breakthrough soon after when he was the end of a driven line-out.

Alex Walker stopped Josh Drauniniu after the Exiles’ winger had broken free, but from another catch and drive Nathan Trevett dotted down and Drauniniu then added Welsh’s third when he capitalised on a favourable bounce from Seb Jewell’s kick through.

Ealing continued their policy of keeping the ball in hand and they eventually had their reward just before half-time when fullback Luke Daniels set debutant James Cordy-Redden free to score.

After half-time the wind continued to thwart both teams’ ambitions to play with the ball in-hand, but Ward knocked over a penalty after 51 minutes to bring Ealing into bonus point territory. Bentley scored his first penalty soon after coming off the bench to close the deficit to only two points.

The Kiwi missed the chance to put the hosts in the lead for the first time when he pulled another penalty wide and after Welsh won a penalty from a scrum they went on the attack for the first time in the half and eventually Trevett went over for his second try of the match.

Barkley’s conversion left Ealing chasing a bonus point. As the clock ticked down Will Davis broke the Welsh line to take them into their 22 and when the Exiles offended one last time Bentley made no mistake.

Scorers
Ealing Trailfinders
Tries (Cordy-Redden 36), Conversions (Ward 36), Penalties (Ward 51, Bentley 62, 80)
London Welsh
Tries (Hodson 9, Trevett 21, 77 Drauniniu 28), Conversions (Bentley 77)

Ealing Trailfinders
Luke Daniels, Rhys Crane, Danny Barnes, Tom Wheatcroft, James Cordy-Redden, Ben Ward, Alex Walker; Will Davis, Rhys Lawrence (captain), Alex Penny, Carwyn Jones, Adam Preocanin, Iain Grieve, Arthur Ellis, Chris York
Reserves
Jamie Kilbane, Karl Gibson, Nathan Buck, Paul Spivey, Llewelyn Jones, James Love, Jonny Bentley

London Welsh
Chris Elder, Nic Reynolds, Guy Armitage, Seb Jewell, Josh Drauniniu, Ollie Barkley, Ryan Glynn; Nathan Trevett, Nathan Morris, Jack Gilding, Josh McNally, Ben West, Will Skuse, Ryan Hodson (captain), Kieran Murphy
Reserves
Koree Britton, Eddie Aholelei, Ben Cooper, Matt Corker, Ben Pienaar, Josh Davies, Joe Carlisle

Referee – Greg McDonald
Attendance – 802
STORM Matches Man of the Match – Arthur Ellis