Ealing Trailfinders 73 Macclesfield 15
Macclesfield travelled to table-topping Ealing Trailfinders this weekend and found it every bit as tough as many expected.
With a vastly superior playing budget, Ealing have won each of their seven games and only once failed to collect a bonus point.
Their spending power saw them chalk up 73 points and were never in any danger of letting their 100 per cent record slip.
The Blues went down early on as the hosts launched a quickfire counter attack from debutant Tom Morton’s kick-off.
Ealing shifted the ball wide quickly and were a try ahead with just moments played.
Just two minutes later, the home side doubled their lead and asserted themselves at the scrum, allowing Ealing number eight and captain Danny Kenny to go in under the posts, seemingly unchallenged.
With 10 minutes on the clock, Macclesfield seemed to have settled into the game and were putting some good pressure on the league’s front runners.
The Blues were then given a penalty advantage by the referee and used it wisely. Morton, who signed from Sale on a dual registration during the week, put a wonderful grubber kick in behind the defence for Elliot Brierley to pounce on.
Morton converted the score to make it 14-7.
Ealing responded almost immediately as their centre split the Blues’ defence and went in under the posts, restoring their 14-point lead.
Although Macclesfield enjoyed large spells of pressure in Ealing territory they failed to come away with many more points, something which the hosts made them pay for with three quickfire tries in the last 10 minutes of the half.
Morton did pull three points back from a penalty but Macclesfield went in at the break 38-10 in arrears.
It took 10 minutes of the second half for the first score, the Trailfinders pack taking charge at the lineout and bulldozing over for another score.
Ten minutes later the Ealing forwards again asserted themselves of the Macc pack by forcing a penalty try from the scrum.
Five minutes later, Macclesfield showed good character to pull a try back for themselves as Elliott Millar-Mills jumped onto a loose ball in the Ealing dead ball area, his score making it 52-15.
Trailfinders responded immediately to this Macclesfield score by adding two tries of their own to add another 14 points to their tally for the day.
With almost the last play of the game, Ealing completed their impressive display with a good team try to make it 73-15 at the final whistle.
Ealing showed why they top the league and look certain to be heading back to Championship come the end of this National One season.
