Rugby players from Wisbech 1st XV suffered a tough defeat to Ely losing 41-6 to the fourth placed side in the league.

Wisbech started off brightly dominating the early exchanges and within 10 minutes their pressure was rewarded when the home side infringed at the breakdown, Wisbech taking a 3-nil lead.

Wisbech continued the pressure but poor handling and decision making saw several opportunities go begging.

A high tackle from Wisbech saw Henrikas Stankus yellow carded.

Ely kicked for touch deep into the Wisbech half of the field. Poor discipline from Wisbech at the ensuing breakdown earned Ely a penalty to level the scores at 3-3.

Wisbech kept the pressure on Ely, camped in their twenty two and dominating set piece but with a man in the sin bin were unable to turn the pressure into tries. The pressure earned them another successful penalty to go into half time leading 6-3.

Wisbech started the second half first half like they did the first putting Ely on the back foot but again basic mistakes cost them to the relieve of Ely.

But suddenly Wisbech went to sleep, poor discipline again their Achilles’ heel, this time Shane Vickers been showed a yellow card and the supremacy from the home side took hold of the game as they built a lead of 41-6. Wisbech would not be disheartened though and their spirit and will saw them battle until the end.

Skipper Solomon Prestidge led from the front throughout and his never-say-die attitude inspired the Men in Red to battle to the end earned him the Wisbech Round Table man-of-the-match award.

Leonard Veenendaal, director of Rugby, said: “Congratulations to Ely, the better team on the day, we have no excuses. The result was an example of what happens when we are unable to adapt to plan B.

“We made our own problems with our lack of accuracy and poor disciple and that’s not good enough but we can and will put it right on the training pitch.”

The Wildcats will be in action Friday evening under the lights at Thetford RFC, Kick off 7.30pm.