St Ives 24 v 8 Oundle - 22nd January 2005
A much improved team performance all-round for St Ives with improved defence and disciplined adherence to pre-planned moves.
St ives let the first try in within 5 minutes from a poorly held maul, but heads stayed high and resisted further pressure from Oundle.
The first try fell to James cannon, following a 2-phase maul from the forwards and quick hands from Scrum-half lee jackson and new comer, fly-half 18yr old Adam Clark. Adam threw the ball to a flying cannon and he forced his way over for the first try, duly converted by clark.
The second was an excellent back move from the scrum and quick hands through Cannon, Blackly and finally to skipper Nick Crane who took the defender over the line to score in the corner.
Scrums were forced to become uncontested following injuries to both Oundle Prop replacements which created a disadvantage to St Ives as they were dominating the majority. The feeling is that another three tries could have been achieved had the scrums remained contested.
The 3rd try fell to Cannon again from another one-two with Clark and again Clark converted.
The final points of the game came from a Jason Price try. A scrum was awarded 5 yrds out following a kick and chase from Crane who's lightening speed left the defender with no option but to take it over his own line for the scrum.
No. 8, Burke, took the ball from the base of the scrum and fired it out to Price who was waiting on the wing. He forced his way into the corner to make the score 24 V 8.
St Ives continued to defend perfectly until the final whistle sounded.
Skipper Nick Crane commented 'we have had 2 reasonably attended squad training sessions in the last 2 weeks and i'm sure this has helped our performance'. He also added 'i'd like to commend Adam Clark on his debut 1st team league game. He stood his ground well, tackled well and gave a bit of inspiration to a team lacking a 'true' Fly Half'.