The Newmarket forwards have dominated early season play, but from the re-start the backs got into the game with some slick passing. However, it was the No. 8, Nathan Buckle, who got the second try. A Newmarket penalty kick missed touch but Buckle recovered the ball to score. He repeated the performance a few minutes later. Again the backs returned the ball well from the drop out. From the ensuing scrum Newmarket took the ball against the head and Buckle took advantage of a blindside gap to cross the line.
Though they had passed and tackled well Ely had hardly escaped, so far, from their own half of the pitch. With a few minutes of the first half remaining they finally made it into foreign territory. Looking far less convincing defending than they were attacking, Newmarket gave away a series of penalties. From the last one Ely took full advantage of some slow defence to score from ten metres.
Newmarket were immediately back on song in the second half. The ball flowed along the backs and winger and man of the match, Ian Moffat, cut inside, avoiding half a dozen tacklers before touching down just to the right of the posts. However, the forwards had the final scoring word. Flanker Aiden Cooper had harried Ely all afternoon and fully deserved his try in the corner.
Newmarket made some positional changes for the last quarter of the match but found themselves on the back foot. Despite further good runs by Moffat and Joe Stafford, a series of penalties for high tackles and infringements around the ruck gave Ely the advantage. However, determined defence by the whole team, with Jack Watson's crunching tackling outstanding, shut out Ely even when they got to within a few metres of the line.
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