Emphatic Ealing blast into Cup semi-finals
BEN WARD heaped praise on his formidable forwards as Ealing cruised into the semi-finals of the Championship Cup.
The Trailfinders had no problems discovering a way of sweeping Nottingham aside, running in five fine tries and controlling this contest for most of the 80 minutes.
Ealing’s director of rugby Ward enthused: “The lads were brilliant and the forward in particular were outstanding. They laid the platform for what was a great win.
“We did the basics well. We kicked and chased well, and took the tries with tremendous skill.
“We were a little worried about the bad weather we have had this week but the plastic pitch was in perfect condition and shows the benefit of having an artificial surface at this time of year. It was no problem to play on at all for the guys.”
The hosts carved out a 17-3 half-time lead but it took a while for Ealing to warm to the task in the freezing breeze at Trailfinders Sports Ground and take a firm grip.
Poor handling and indiscipline cost them early on with fly-half Shane O’Leary kicking the visitors into the lead with the first penalty of the contest. The kick was made earlier with the home side also pushed back for back chatting referee Adam Leal.
However, the Ealing pack began to slowly and surely impose themselves on their counterparts and lay down the foundations of 20 minutes of dominance.
Fly-half Laurence May almost put Ealing over the line when he intercepted a pass inside his own half and got to within ten yards of the try-line before being hauled down by William Millett, and Nottingham managed to escape the danger.
Ealing lock Harris Classon was held up as he tried to ground the ball after another strong move and Nottingham’s scrum began to creak.
When they were warned a player could be sinbinned if there were any more penalties given away, the visitors failed to clean up their act and Ealing were awarded a penalty try and a yellow card shown to lock Shane Buckley for pulling down a maul as Ealing looked set to march over.
Growing in confidence, and applying continuous pressure on the Nottingham line, May stretched the lead with a penalty and as Nottingham struggled to turn the tide they leaked a second try.
Scrum-half Jordan Burns’ short pass was snaffled by Lewis Jones and the centre swivelled and reached out over the line. May converted and the Ealing crowd roared its approval.
Hooker and star man Matthew Cornish almost grabbed a third try shortly before the break but a hefty last ditch hit by full-back Sean Scanlon denied him.
Nottingham continued to find life tough in this part of West London and their tackling left a lot to be desired when former Quins centre Harry Sloan far too easily broke through a hole to run over the line unchallenged for the third try, converted by
with ease by May.
It was one way traffic and the visitors were unable to prevent another swift Ealing break from finishing with scrum-half Burns strolling over for an easy try.
Sloan’s break had carved out the opening and May converted once again for a 31-3 lead.
Nottingham did manage to apply some pressure themselves and a sublime offload from No.8 Josh Poulett from a driving maul put wing David Williams over for a fine try converted superbly by O’Leary.
But the powerful Ealing pack showed more skill and power with Cornish dropping to the floor for a deserved try again conment verted by May. Nottingham had replaceboth Gearoid Lyons sinbinned near the end for foul play. The final word was left to Craig Willis, who came on as a late replacement to kick a penalty to complete the comfortable victory.
Nottingham head coach Neil Fowkes admitted: “We had a good start but having the two lads sin-binned did not help the cause.”