Ely 48 - Crusaders 0

Ely 48 - Crusaders 0

Crusaders travelled to high flying Ely without fullback Robb Craig, centre Ben Parker and Joe Hawkins who were unable to travel. Ely got off to a flying start and two quick trys gave the hosts a 10 - 0 lead. Pressure on Crusaders mounted when the influential No. 8 Peter Blinkhorn had to sit out the rest of the game following a hand injury in the first 5 minutes! Crusaders rallied and disrupted the fluent Ely back line with some determined defending with Karl Peebles, Josh Stewart and James Garner preventing certain trys.
Pressure told approaching half-time and Ely increased their lead with two further scores for a comfortable 22-0 interval lead.
Crusaders were reduced to 14 men when Gregg was yellow carded, Ely took advantage and scored a 5th try. Crusaders rallied and put the home side under pressure for a full 20 minutes with their forwards retaining a good supply of ball but Crusaders reshaped back line lacked the fluency to penetrate Ely's defence. Ely engineered three further trys late in the game from deep in the half with a display of pace and good support play befitting of the league status.