Match Report: Ealing 55-38 Coventry

NEVER-say-die Coventry may not have halted champions Ealing’s second-half surge but kept the scoreboard flowing themselves in a match featuring no fewer than 15 tries. 

Every time the Trailfinders showed their class, Cov responded with decent helpings of grit and style, and although the hosts stretched their legs in the second half Alex Rae’s charges defied tiring legs with replacement Suva Ma’asi going over twice to maintain respectability.

Head coach Rae named three changes from a comfortable home triumph over Nottingham seven days earlier. 

Top scorer Jimmy Martin missed out due to a head injury sustained last week with Oli Morris wearing 13 and Tom Hitchcock drafted in at inside centre. Captain Jordon Poole and Senitiki Nayalo returned to the starting line-up with Ma’asi and Mackenzie Graham making way. 

The hosts made a dominant start and hearts were in mouths when Jordan Holgate was stopped just shy of the line but it proved a stay of execution, patience paying off with Will Montgomery having enough space to power over.

Coventry immediately responded, David Opuku blocked from an otherwise clear run by Holgate, but the visitors got back in the game from a scruffy scrum that Nayalo nicked out of the sky to set Poole away to score.

Ealing responded almost instantly, Jake Henry failing to take a high ball with Cov unable to gather themselves quickly enough to stop Tobi Wilson guiding out to Michael Dykes who notched in the left corner.

Undeterred, Cov battered on the door for a solid four minutes with Poole and Nayalo thwarted either side of a series of penalties that led to nothing. 

Trailfinders re-established a foothold and when it took three men to stop Holgate crashing through the crowd, they had the numbers to the left to release Dykes to score his second. 

Cov again built pressure and always carried a threat, shifting the ball swiftly across the pitch for Nayalo to force his way through a cluster of bodies.

The pendulum swung kept swinging, Jordy Reid diving over after Cov got caught napping from a quick lineout but the arrears were reduced once more, Ealing paying the price for failing to go for touch, a penalty for crossing affording the visitors one more crack and pressure led to a penalty try that saw Montgomery sin binned. 

Despite being a man down, Ealing started the second half well until Sam Maunder’s huge crossfield kick into touch turned defence into attack in a heartbeat with Poole’s push over the line and extras from Tommy Mathews closing the gap to two. 

The game turned shortly after Ealing refreshed their front row alongside Montgomery’s return to the pitch, running in four tries in 11 minutes. 

The hosts kept the ball and moved it a little too quickly for Cov with Francis Moore rounding off a slick passage from left to right, Kabous Bezuidenhout getting the next following good work from the tireless Craig Hampson and Moore, Matt Cornish rounding off a catch and drive before Moore’s second down the right.

Even in the middle of that whirlwind spell, the visitors carried a threat with Dan Green dropping the ball with men over and although Cornish capped off another irresistible Ealing spell, that was not the end of it as Coventry capitalised on a loose ending, Ma’asi stretching to dab down on the right and getting over again following good work by Josh Barton.

Ealing: Wilson; Kernohan, Moore, Holgate, Dykes (Bodilly, 64); Jones (Willis, 61), Hampson (Stronge, 61); Zigiriadis (Cornish, 50), Willemse (Whyte, 50), Davis (Bezuidenhout, 50); Bridge, Jurevicius (Ehizode, 59); Farrar, Reid, Montgomery (Taylor, 59).

Coventry: Trotter; Opoku (Lane, 29), Morris, Hitchcock, Henry; Mathews, Maunder (Barton, 62); Trinder (Warren, 58), Poole (Ma’asi, 58), Johnson (Salt, 58); Anstey (Graham, 58), Nayalo; Ball, Kvesic (Bennett, 58), Owen (Green, 55). 

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys

Half-Time: Ealing 26-19 Coventry

Attendance: 2,107

Scorers:

Ealing

Tries: Montgomery 8, Dykes 14, 25, Reid 34, Moore 53, 63, Bezuidenhout 56, Cornish 59, 70.

Conversions: Jones 9, 26, 35, 54, 57.

Coventry

Tries: Poole 12, 45, Nayalo 28, Penalty try 40+, Ma’asi 72, 77.

Conversions: Mathews 29, 73, 78