The first twenty minutes or so were pretty much even stevens as both sides struggled to get to grips with the game in the gusty conditions. Ramsey’s Fintan Cummins and Ellesmere’s Paul Millington both had two unsuccessful shots at goal in the opening quarter but neither were able to convert.
After half an hour though the deadlock was finally broken. Ellesmere’s number eight Adam Polski struggled to control some untidy ball at the back of the scrum and as his scrum half Sam Hubbard tried to kick his way out of danger his clearance was charged down by Tynan Pritchard who managed to gather the ball and sprint in unchallenged from fifty metres out for a 5-0 lead which Ramsey held until half time.
Ramsey doubled their lead in a dream start to the second half. Just five minutes in Ben Harding benefited from a bouncing ball to touch down out wide on the right to put Ramsey 10-0 up and looking threatening as Ellesmere’s big forwards started to tire.
From the restart however Ellesmere were back in it. Ramsey’s Henry Doran fielded the restart but was stripped in the tackle. As Ellesmere started to shift their turnover ball, the Ramsey back line was caught offside in front of goal and Paul Millington got his side on the board with an easy three pointer.
Ten minutes later Ellesmere edged closer. A period of sustained pressure deep in the Ramsey twenty two yielded a string of short range penalties and when the home defence finally cracked, Ellesmere poured through and big second row Martin Titho emerged triumphant from beneath a pile of bodies to claim the try and reduce the Ramsey lead to just two points.
A Fintan Cummins penalty ten minutes from the end extended the Ramsey lead to 13-8 before Ramsey finished it off with the move of the match. Tynan Pritchard broke from the base of a scrum. He offloaded to debutant Daryn Thompson who sucked in the defence before releasing the backs. James Stewart then found Fintan Cummins who in turn found Matt Livesey charging down the left. He played a neat one two with left wing Simon Hirtenstein and dived over in the corner to finish the move off. Ellesmere had a single shot left in their locker and Paul Millington’s break down the middle led to a late consolation try from Niall Fitzpatrick to leave the final score at 18-13.
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