St Ives 1XV vs. Market Harborough 1XV
A weakened St. Ives team travelled to Market Harborough this week and faced a well-organised and drilled Market Harborough team. St. Ives were missing a number of key players including Captain Ross Thompson, try sensation Marc Sands and the youthful back-row trio of Steve Burke, Matt Ball and Jason Price.
The game started badly for St. Ives with blindside flanker Morton going off injured with a nasty head wound from the first tackle of the game. This unsettled the St. Ives pack and Market Harborough took advantage and scored a penalty after some lax defending by St. Ives. Market Harborough increased their lead soon after with an excellent driving mall from a lineout deep in St. Ives' half.
St. Ives' best chance of a scoring came halfway in the first half after a quick penalty taken by the St. Ives back line in their own 22, good handling and offloading from Sykes and Williams powered St. Ives up the touch line Unfortunately Blackley could not hold onto the final pass and St. Ives were unable to get on the score sheet. St. Ives shipped more points before the half was over and were 20 points down going into the second half.
The second half started in a similar vane to the first with Market Harborough scoring early to extend their lead and a injury forced St. Ives back row player Scott to go off. This led to a reshuffle with centre Sykes moving into the back row. St. Ives' problems were compounded minutes later when scrum half Jackson was sin binned for dissent. This sparked and fired up the St. Ives pack and led to the best 10 minutes of play. The 14-man defence dug in and tenaciously repelled Market Harborough's driving and mauling play. St. Ives started to gain more possession and territory as the half progressed after some solid set piece play and spent some time in the opposition 22. Unfortunately St. Ives could not make their pressure pay and were unable to cross the whitewash. Market Harborough did not score again until late on after Clarke's kick was charged down. Final score St. Ives 0 Market Harborough 34
After the game Stand in Captain David Williams said "I was disappointed with the first half performance considering the good results of the past two weeks, but I was pleased with the effort and defence of the second half, especially with number of players playing out of position and some stepping up and raising their game from the second team". Next weekend St. Ives host local rivals St. Neots, which should prove to be a hard fought contest. Kick off is at 2.00, as always supporters are welcome.