Wymondham took to the field at Ely with what was probably their youngest ever side, with the majority of the players aged 21 or below.

Unfortunately, hard as the youngsters tried, their lack of experience in senior rugby, allied to injuries to key players, left them on the wrong end of a heavy loss.

Wyatt made no mistake with an early penalty to give Wymondham the lead but the visitors then lost hooker Masters, who was knocked out in contact. The game resumed after a long delay and on the stroke of half-time a Wymondham forward was adjudged to have gone off his feet at a ruck and, from the resulting penalty just 10 metres or so from the line, the big Ely forwards crashed over. The conversion was good, leaving the score at the break 7-3 to Ely.

The second period opened with a converted try from the Ely winger but Wymondham hit back straight away and forced another penalty which Wyatt slotted between the posts to reduce the deficit.

Unfortunately, star winger Martin was forced to leave the field having suffered a head injury which forced yet another reorganisation and 10 minutes into the half Ely duly capitalised by working the ball for an unconverted try to make it 19-6.

Wymondham were now in all sorts of trouble and Ely, with their tails up, took full advantage, running in a further converted try.

The visitors were still trying to run the ball but this backfired when the ball was lost on their right wing and they conceded another try.

As the half ran down, Wymondham regrouped and when Ely conceded a free-kick from a line-out when their jumper went up early lock David Blake tapped the ball and charged for the Ely line. He timed his off-load perfectly to allow captain Josh Wright to crash over for a try, duly converted by Wyatt.

Wymondham were holding their own with brave defence but as the game drew to a close the inevitable tiredness crept in and Ely exploited an overlap to finish the match with a converted try, leaving the final score at 38-13.

Wymondham now go into a home match against Newmarket next week hoping to have learned lessons from their opening matches as their youngsters come to terms with the demands of league rugby. For their part, the coaches will be looking hard at all their available players in order to come up with the winning combination.