St Ives 5 Aylestone Athletic 27
St Ives started the year with a dismal loss to league rivals Aylestone Athletic with their first game of 2008.
Aylestone won the two sides earlier clash in the season by a healthy margin and so were confident of a repeat performance, whereas St Ives were looking to turn the tables with home advantage. Unfortunately this would not be the case, Saints fielding a ragtag team consisting of players from all three senior teams (1st, 2nd and Vets).
St Ives lost the toss and kicked off down the slope, with hopes of using the downhill and wind advantage. They started brightly, seemingly able to cope well in the loose and at the first scrummages. They came undone at an early ruck, getting turned over in open play and loosing the ball. The visitors were then able to get quick ball to their backs, who exploited some poor tackling and defensive work from the home side and scored two tries – almost carbon copies of each other – in quick succession. In the first ten minutes, St Ives were 10 – nil down.
This seemed to galvanise St Ives, who then dominated the remainder of the half both territorially and in possession. The ever reliable scrum – led by the ugly sisters in the front row – provided a solid platform from which to work, and Ives were able to mount a prolonged assault on the Aylestone try line. However, despite this dominance, they suffered from white line phobia, unable to convert pressure into points, whilst leaking a third breakaway try to end the half 15 – 0 down.
The second half saw some changes in the Ives pack. James Bennett, who made a real nuisance of himself on Aylestone throw in at the line out, made way for Jim Lewsham. This change seemed to have little difference in the end result of St Ives play – rucks and mauls were secure and provided a good attacking platform – but Ives still could not score. Aylestone again exploited some poor defensive work from the home side, and were also awarded a controversial try where the winger himself admitted he did not touch the ball down for the score, to score twice in the half.
St Ives did manage a face saving try in the dying minutes. Hooker Gez Gilburt, in a moment of madness, kicked the ball over the advancing Aylestone defenders and miraculously collected the lucky bounce to storm up the pitch. This surprise attack enabled Ives to mount pressure on the visitor’s line and force a penalty close to the try line. Steve Burke then forced his way over the line to score, ending the match 27 – 5 to Aylestone.
Speaking after the match, St Ives captain Pete Hammond said “I am bitterly disappointed with today’s performance. We dominated play in all aspects today, at the ruck and maul and destroying their scrum from the first play. The only faltering part of our game was our line out, which was non existent, but other than that out attacking play was good. We just weren’t able to convert pressure into points – at one point in the first half we were camped within their 22 for 25 minutes but came up with nothing. Defensively we were lacking on several occasions, as their tries were all scored from breakaways not from phase play.
We had some good performances today though. Youngsters Nick Borkett and Mark Houlden are shaping up nicely, despite this being their first season of senior rugby and are getting better as they grow in confidence.
At the end of the day, we need to get more bodies at training if we are to start winning matches – something we need to do if we are to avoid relegation at the end of the season”.
Saint Ives next league game is against Oundle. Saints won their last clash and will be hoping to repeat this performance when they travel to Oundle on the 19th of January.