St Ives 1XV vs. St Neots
Seven tries from St Ives is enough to put them through to the next round. A good performance from St Ives' youthful backline once again produces the goods in the Hunts and Peterborough cup.
St Ives fielded a mixed side this past weekend, taking the opportunity to give some more of the squad players a chance to lay their cards on the table. At the end of the day it was the backline that once again produced the goods for the home team - three tries from John Paxton and two from his brother Charles Paxton, including contributions from Steve Burke and Dave Williams and 3 conversions from Jack Blackley.
St Neots had to field a weakened side due to league commitments but the side that took the field were by no means push overs, the St Ives scrum struggled early on under the pressure of the St Neots front five, but despite these frailties the ball provided was good enough for the backline to do the damage.
Unfortunately St Ives did leak three tries over the course of the game, one through an interception in the first half and two in the second half through good power play from the St Neots pack.
Speaking after the game Ross Thompson was happy with the performance. This should hopefully put last weekends defeat behind us now - we have a vital home game against Oundle next weekend and we need to be firing on all cylinders for that. If we can keep providing the backs with clean ball, I cannot see the Oundle defence being up to the challenge.
Team list from Saturday: P. Hammond, C. Raey, J. Dear, J. Clarke, R. Thompson, S. Burke, M. Ball, T. Milner, L. Jackson, J. Blackley, M. Sykes, D. Williams, C. Paxton, B. Pinion, J. Paxton, J. Lewsam, I. Parry, P. Drueitt, D. Fry
Final Score: St Ives 41 - St Neots 19.