EALING Trailfinders' hopes of beating last year's third-placed league finish hang by a thread after back-to-back away defeats to Dings Crusaders and Rosslyn Park.
Two weeks ago tries from Ben Ward, Kiba Richards, Mark Tucker and Ali James were not enough as Dings edged a thrilling game 33-29.
This weekend, however, Ealing never recovered from from a horror start away at Rosslyn Park as their hosts ran in three tries in the first 15 minutes. A fourth late in the game sealed a 26-21 win for Park, who leapfrog Ealing into second place with only one game remaining.
Park stormed into the lead in the third minute when fly-half Dylan Pugh intercepted on the half-way line and ran in under the posts.
They were 14-0 up within five minutes when wing John Swords danced through a disjointed Ealing defence, before a third try from lock Russel Forster, following a five-metre line out.
With Park almost out of sight, Ealing regrouped and set about closing the gap. Owen Bruynseels missed the visitors' first clear-cut
chance, knocking on with a clear run to the line, but it was not long before Ealing got the score they needed when Harry Rowland spun through a tackle and dropped over the line close to the posts.
Trailing 21-7 at half-time, Ealing made a better start to the second period, although it was 30 minutes before the next points were scored.
Substitute Tucker was able to offload out of a tackle to Matt Garvey, who dragged three tacklers with him.
The resulting quick ball found Kiba Richards on the wing, who was tackled short of the line, but he found Pete Hodgkinson, who ran in the try.
His conversion brought Ealing to within seven points, but with five minutes left Park virtually secured the win thanks to a superb finish by full-back Chris Simmons, after the home forwards stole an Ealing line-out while hooker Andy Dalgleish was in the sin bin.
With time running out, Tucker latched on to a Ben Ward grubber kick to claim a vital losing bonus point, but it was too late to affect the result.
This weekend Ealing travel to face Lydney in their final game of the season, hoping that Park fail to beat Henley in midweek, which would give Ealing a chance of claiming second place.
