St Ives vs Brackley – 8th January 2005
St Ives first game of 2005 saw the team travelling to Brackley on a very windy Saturday afternoon to face one of the top teams of East Mids/S Leics 1.
With the weather in mind, and the strong side St Ives were fielding, the game plan was to keep it close and to dominate in the forwards. This appeared to work in the first half with St Ives enjoying the majority of possession through some tough forward play and straight running from the backline. The St Ives back row were like a rash all over the field, constantly popping up in the right position at the right time, allowing a good platform to be built for some exciting phase play.
The pressure eventually told and Brackley began to concede penalties in there own half. A good quick tap by Vinny Woodward brought St Ives close to the line, and good presentation and rucking caused panic from Brackley who eventually managed to clear their lines.
St Ives did cross the line midway through the first half but unfortunately the referee was not in position to see the ball. The move came from a lineout just outside the Brackley 5 metre line and a good catch and drive allowed St Ives to cross the line.
St Ives were awarded another penalty in the Brackley 22, which Jack Blackley kicked to bring the scores to 3-0. Brackley responded later in the half with a penalty of their own to level the scores at 3-3 going into half time.
The second half was a completely different story. St Ives started well and looked on top for the first 10 minutes until an intercepted pass allowed the Brackley no. 10 to score under the posts. This decision was dubious as the fly half did appear to be offside, but the referee allowed play to continue. This upset the St Ives players, and further dubious decisions from the referee resulted in some back chat and bickering from St Ives. This first try of the game and the bickering of a normally composed St Ives team allowed Brackley to gain the upper hand, and they crossed the line a further two times in the game and scored an extra penalty.
St Ives did come close to scoring with a breakthrough late in the second half, but unfortunately the final pass did not go to hand
St Ives never regained their composure and it would be easy to blame this on the poor refereeing. But this would not be the whole picture. The St Ives players were guilty of loosing their heads in a game where 100% composure was need. Hopefully we can learn from this, and take the positives from the first 50 minutes, going into the next league game on the 22nd, at home to Oundle.
Final Score Brackley 23 – St Ives 3