Trailfinders cruise into the quarter finals

RAMPANT Ealing Trailfinders secured a home quarter-final in the Championship Cup after a dominant 56-19 victory over Coventry.

Director of rugby Ben Ward was delighted ahead of a crunch Championship clash against Newcastle, on Saturday.

“I thought the players were outstanding throughout and had a great energy about them,” he said. “Any team on the front foot is hard to stop and we enjoyed plenty of ball, which gave us the platform.

“It’s great to get through to the knockout stages and now we can park this competition until the New Year and focus on the league.

“We know that it’s a massive game against Newcastle and we want to test ourselves against the best, so we’ll embrace this challenge and make sure we’re ready.”

Ward’s side scored eight tries in total as their physical dominance gave them the platform to run away with another impressive win at Trailfinders Sports Club.

The tries came from Jordy Reid, Andrew Durutalo, Craig Hampson, Tommy Bell, Rayn Smid, James Cordy Redden, Jordan Burns and Kieran Murphy as they booked a place in the last eight of the cup.

Reid gave the hosts the perfect start with a try after just three minutes.

A rolling maul powered towards the line and the Australian broke away, giving himself a clear run to the line.

Steven Shingler’s conversion put them 7-0 in front.

The visitors hit straight back 60 seconds later to level, but Durutalo, who was outstanding throughout, then gave the Trailfinders the lead after 12 minutes.

Shingler then kicked a penalty before the 20-minute mark to extend the lead to eight points.

Coventry got back in to the game as Andy Bulumakau intercepted a pass and ran the length of the field to score, but the hosts then took their performance up a level to secure the bonus point before the break.

Hampson spotted a gap in the defence from the base of a ruck and dummied his way to the line, before Bell pounced on Shingler’s grubber kick to give the west Londoners a commanding lead.

Ben Nutley was sent to the sin-bin for killing the ball for the visitors, and Shingler then added another three points from the resulting penalty to put the host 32-12 up at the break.

The second-half started in electric fashion and Smid scored a captain’s try with just 90 seconds played.

Coventry scored an opportunistic try as Jack Ram took advantage of an overthrown lineout, but the Trailfinders then went on the rampage with three tries in the final 10 minutes.

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