St Ives vs. Stoneygate
Hatrick of league wins for St Ives
This weekend saw St Ives entertain Stoneygate in the next round of the league competition. Morale was high in the camp after last weekends tough battle against Kempston, which saw St Ives emerge victorious in their first away win in two seasons. The squad were determined not to pass up an excellent opportunity to continue riding the wave.
The game started at a blistering pace, St Ives losing the toss were forced to play up the slope and into a strong wind and it was Stoneygate who came out the blocks all pistons firing. St Ives were under the cosh from the get go and after 2 minutes of hard defence the Stoneygate attack broke the lines to score to the right of the posts.
This was to be the story of most of the first half with Stoneygate enjoying the majority of possession and territory in what was appearing to be a one-sided contest. But the home side defence was repelling attack after attack and still holding firm, including a period of 10 minutes with 14 men due to the blind side flanker being sin binned for swinging arms. The constant pressure eventually paid off and a moment of slack defending didn't help the situation. The fringe defence that had, for the best part of the half, been immovable suffered a moment of indecision which Stoneygate pounced upon and cut through the hole to score once more. This brought the score to 14-0, St Ives seeming unable to answer the Stoneygate attack.
St Ives did have their chance though and took it with confidence. Ollie Jones playing back at outside centre shrugged off a tackle and began a jinking run up the right hand side of the field. It looked as though he was going to go the distance himself, but an excellent covering tackle from the fullback caught him at the last minute. Marc Sands was on hand in a supporting role to receive Ollie's offload on streaked over the line to score under the posts. Adam Clark was successful with the conversion.
This brought the half time score to 14-7. The half time team talk was positive, to be 7 points behind after the onslaught of the first period was not a bad situation to be in, St Ives would now be playing with the slope and the win and needed to concentrate on possession to grind out the result. The team took this to heart and began the second half at the same pace and intensity as Stoneygate had.
It became a situation of roles reversed with St Ives enjoying the majority of possession and territory, with Stoneygate visiting the home sides' half on few occasions. This change in fortune was largely thanks to the front row of Pete Hammond, Gez Gilburt and Josh Dear destroying their opposition, allowing the St Ives pack to steal ball against the head and do what they wanted with their own feed. It was through this strong forward play that St Ives' second try emerged. A charge down from Eddie Embly giftede St Ives a scrum on the 5 metre line, it was time for the St Ives pack to prove their worth and did so with gusto - driving the visitors pack over the line allowing Steve Burke to touch down, unfortunately Adam Clark missed his kick but St Ives were definitely in the driving seat at this time.
It was time for Stoneygate to defend with all their might, and at times that St Ives could not break the barrier. Despite spending the majority of time in the opposition 22, the home side could not break the line. Eventually the constant pressure paid off - St Ives shortening their line out produced quick ball for the backs to use. Quick hands found Mike Sykes with options either side of him, choosing the inside line he found Barney Harrison on hand to crash through the tackle and score next to the posts. Adam's attempt was good and this found St Ives ahead 19-14.
With 10 minutes left to play, the game was a long way from over. Stoneygate refound their attacking potential and spent a period of time in the St Ives half. The defence held firm and in the dieing moments St Ives wrapped up the win with a carbon copy of the third try, Barney on hand once again to score under the posts. Adam with the last kick of the game scored the conversion attempt and finished the game with the final score standing at 26-14.
Speaking after the game Ross Thompson was over the moon. Somersham Road is becoming a fortress at the moment, we knew this would be a tough contest and we were disappointed to throw the points away when we travelled to Stoneygate, but we have had our revenge today. A magnificent performance from the whole team has put us in a strong position in the league we know look forward to our up and coming fixtures. St Ives face a tough time next weekend at home in the semi-final of the Hunts and Peterborough Cup against a strong Peterborough 2XV side, followed closely by a visit from top of the league Bedford Swifts. Despite the opposition Ross Thompson is confident of taking the results from both fixtures, we are playing exceptionally well at the moment in all areas of the park and I believe only errors by us will cost us results.
St Ives second team enjoyed success at home too, beating a travelling Biggleswade by 34 points to 5 with tries from James Cannon, Paul Ashbridge, Alec Campbell and 3 from John Paxton.