St Ives vs. Stamford
Saturday saw St Ives return to winning ways, with a five try haul included! A bright sunny day was the scene this weekend, a huge difference to the previous few weeks playing conditions where a pair of flippers and a snorkel would have been more appropriate!
Despite the perfect running conditions, St Ives were again foul of starting slow. Stamford were quick out of the blocks and stole a try in the opening 5 minutes, but unlike a fortnight ago, the Bulls were determined to prevent an early collapse and from the ensuing restart began to take the game to Stamford. Almost immediately pressure was applied and Stamford were penalised under the posts. Looking to get points on the board quickly, Jack Blackley was instructed to take an attempt at goal. His attempt was successful and acted as a catalyst for further dominance in the first half.
Tireless work from the forwards, and Bryan Richardson in particular grafted hard all day to provide the platform for the Bulls to attack. Three tries in total were scored in the first period, one from Marc Sands who exploited the half yard given to him by his opposite number and screamed off to score under the posts, the second try came from Jack Blackley backing himself for pace and rounding three defenders to touch down, and finally a third score came from John Paxton, breaking through a tackle on the left hand side to score out wide. Jack Blackley was successful with two of the conversion attempts and took the half time score to 22-5. The forwards dominance was paying off, but the second half could tell a different story St Ives had been playing down the slope with a healthy wind behind them and the worries were there that the difference was not enough.
Thankfully this was not to be the case, as is normally the case when the Bulls play at home, St Ives seemed to play more efficient rugby into the wind and up the slope. It became a mission to retain possession and St Ives looked to be doing well. Stamford did manage to strike again though, some relaxed fringe defence allowed the visitors to score to the left of the posts but the conversion attempt was sliced wide. They registered a score again through some ill discipline at the break down and notched up a penalty to their score line. But this was the final score for Stamford and St Ives had the majority of the possession for the remainder of the half. It was a welcome back to action for some familiar faces too, Steve Burke came on in the second half, after a 5 week lay off through injury, replacing Tom Milner and Ed Salmon returned to the fray having missed the past couple of weeks. This inclusion maintained the forwards dominance and the stirling work from Steve Parkes, Gez Gilburt, Josh Dear and later Jim Lewsam in the front row ensured that many a ball was taken against the head.
Two further tries came in the second half to increase St Ives’ lead, another from Jack Blackley who was enjoying the space that was being offered to him, and a second also for Marc Sands again backing himself for pace to score in the corner. Jack was successful with one of the conversions and the game came to a close with the final score of St Ives 34 – Stamford 13.
Ross Thompson was over the moon after the game, we have once again shown what this team is capable of. I am particularly happy with how the forwards played today. They did not give up for one moment and had the upper hand over the opposition for the whole game. When the pack plays like that the backs struggle not to score! We have two final games to play in this league, one away against Oundle and one more home game against Market Harborough; if we can maintain this form I see us taking points from both fixtures.