The Ipswich Rhinos scraped home against a plucky Elmbridge side 24-22, in the Rugby League Conference southern premier division.

Rhinos, who feature a number of players from Mersea Island and Colchester rugby clubs, started well when, on nine minutes, Lee Clasby sidestepped his tackler to create space and off-load to Brendan Cook.

Cook made a number of yards under pressure before slipping the ball to Darryl Walters, who crossed under the posts to give Peter LeMarquand an easy conversion and a 6-0 lead.

Unfortunately the Rhinos failed to maintain their early authority, though, and were dealt a double blow midway through the first half.

Firstly, an Elmbridge loose forward broke through the Ipswich defence on the halfway line and outpaced the defenders to score a converted try and secondly, Brendan Cook, who had had an impressive first quarter, turned an ankle in the build-up to the try and limped out of the game.

Some of the Ipswich players were starting to let their frustrations show and, with ten minutes to go until half-time, the Rhinos had a player sin-binned for dropping on an opponent after the tackle had been made.

From the penalty, Elmbridge spun the ball across the pitch to score wide for a 12-6 lead, which they extended to 18-6 on the stroke of half-time with a try from a kick and chase.

However, Ipswich started the second half with more authority and from their first tackle set, forced Elmbridge to kick out from under their own posts.

Rod Arbon, who has been outstanding on the wing this season and a clear winner of the Collier and Catchpole man-of-the-match award, ran the ball back to within yards of the Elmbridge line before it was spun wide to Glyn Thomas to score.

Within minutes Ipswich levelled the scores.

Clasby secured a loose ball lost in a tackle to set up a series of big hits and drive Elmbridge back under their posts, where Paul LeMarquand crashed through defenders to cross the line.

But the try came at a cost.

In the build up Richard Burton, so often an unsung hero of the Rhinos because of his quiet efficiency was caught by a knee in the face leaving him with a nasty cut to the eye requiring stitches.

With two big tacklers now sidelined, coach Andrew Skipper had to constantly reshuffle the team to rest players as Elmbridge started to come back into the game and they were rewarded for their efforts at the start of the final quarter when awarded back-to-back sets.

The Elmbridge winger latched on to the end of a fluent passing move and found a gap to score an unconverted try.

With 12 minutes to go, excellent ball carrying, from Walters and Peter LeMarquand from a penalty on halfway, set up Paul LeMarquand to add his second try, carrying ball and tacklers over the line from ten metres.

Peter LeMarquand converted to give the Rhinos a crucial two-point lead.

Elmbridge fought desperately in the final ten minutes to regain a game snatched from their grasp but in their desperation made a number of errors, which enabled the Rhinos to run down the clock for a slender 24-22 victory.