Pre-season Friendlies

The team played well, defensively they were driving the Falcons backwards on many an occasion - Falcons kept us honest and we had to work for the full 80. There were lessons to be taken, in the dying minutes when down to 13, for a brief period, we should have stuck the ball up our jumpers and rumbled forwards running down the clock, but an ill timed box kick gave the Falcons the possession they much needed. From this they worked the ball down field and eventually spun it out wide for Radwan (who had been kept honest all game by some excellent defence) to wriggle in at the corner and take the winning try.

Stalwart wrote: Redted wrote: Yes probably not the Exeter side that the full house paid to see. The crowd seemed very happy with what they saw - except the Exeter contingent I suppose. The atmosphere was great and it was very entertaining game. The Mennaye was bouncing!

Ealing 7 - Zebre 5 at the half. Ealing have butchered a couple of chances from the 5 meter line out, but they have also done a brilliant job of sefending under the sticks, forcing two turnovers on the own goal line. The scores for both teams came from open play after a few phases. A fun match, onky marred so far by Alun Walker taking a knock. Wind picking up. Blowing crossfield.

Edited by gerg_861 - 03 Sep 2022 at 15:55

Ealing 42 - Zebre 12. FT Ealing's replacements were much faster and better drilled than Zebre's, and ran away with the game in the last 20. Best tries belonged to Reuben Bird-Tulloch, with one lovely step from about 30m, and another nice score off a pass following a charge down by Jan Henning-Campher.

Edited by gerg_861 - 03 Sep 2022 at 16:57

castleparknight wrote: The team played well, defensively they were driving the Falcons backwards on many an occasion - Falcons kept us honest and we had to work for the full 80. There were lessons to be taken, in the dying minutes when down to 13, for a brief period, we should have stuck the ball up our jumpers and rumbled forwards running down the clock, but an ill timed box kick gave the Falcons the possession they much needed. From this they worked the ball down field and eventually spun it out wide for Radwan (who had been kept honest all game by some excellent defence) to wriggle in at the corner and take the winning try. The squad can take a lot from that game, and if they can take that level of intensity into next week will give Ealing a real challenge. After last week it is clear that Bodes and the coaching team did a lot of work in fixing the problems identified the last game. Players of note: John Kelly  Sam Olver Alex Dolly Harry Davey Maliq Holden George Simpson Thom Smith Impact from bench: Ehize(Easy) Ehizode (a big impact player) The front row (they stood up well under the pressure we received at scrum time) These are the players that stood out for me, although everyone put in a big shift I seem to recall these players more than the others.