Rushden & Higham 32 St Ives 17
St Ives travelled to Rushden with a mind to avenge the controversial defeat they suffered against them last time the two teams met. Unfortunately this was not to be.
St Ives lost the toss and received the kick off. Immediately they went on the attack, their forwards outclassing the home side. A continued period of pressure resulted in Ives setting up a strong assault on the Rushden line, and at a ruck close to the line scrum half Dan Stewart saw an opening and sniped in to score. The conversion was missed. 5 – 0 to Ives.
Unfortunately, Ives allowed Rushden to counter and almost immediately gave up a try through poor defensive work. 5 – 5.
Then it was St Ives turn to exert pressure again, with the dominant pack all over the Rushden defence. With an impenetrable scrum and functioning lineout, Ives had all the attacking options. Rucking aggressively and mauling effectively with some excellent support running from the Ives back row of Bryan Richardson, Matt Ball and Steve Burke, the Ives pack marched down to the Rushden line. When Rushden knocked on in possession it gifted Ives a scrum not far from their own line and Saints took the opportunity to roll the Rushden pack backwards and Ives number 8 Steve Burke picked the ball from the back of the scrum and scored. The conversion was again missed. 10 – 5 to Ives.
The next score went to Rushden in somewhat suspicious circumstances. First a forward pass went unnoticed by the referee, then a rather obvious knock on was missed and the Rushden player scored – even though he put his hands to his head and exclaimed his dismay at knocking on! The conversion was good. 10 – 12 at half time to Rushden.
Not long into the second half, St Ives lost their fearless captain Hammond to a nastily dislocated jaw. However, they continued to battle on, taking the attack to Rushden, flanker Richardson seemingly everywhere in support and tackling like a demon. Again, camping on the try line and exerting pressure. A series of mistakes and infringements resulted in Rushden being taken back to their own line, and when Ives went for another pushover try the Rushden flankers were penalised for constantly not binding on properly and the referee awarded a penalty try to Ives (much to Ross Thompson’s chagrin as he felt he had touched the ball down anyway). The conversion was good, giving St Ives the lead again.
Unfortunately this was to be their last score, and a period of lacklustre defending from St Ives saw Rushden run in several soft tries. This effectively killed the game for Ives, and the final score was 32-17 to Rushden.
Speaking after the game, St Ives captain Pete Hammond said “ungh ungh mmmf hng. This was a disappointing loss to day. As before, we were by far the dominant team. Our forwards by far outclassed theirs and enjoyed some excellent periods of play. Our rucking was strong and when we decided to take it to them and maul the ball we walked them backwards. And today when we exerted pressure, we came up with points with some excellent tries. Unfortunately, Rushden seem to be a bogey team for us, with some bizarre ref decisions going against us. This not withstanding, we let ourselves down. Our tackling was horrendous at times and we gifted them some very soft tries. Our defensive line was not good enough on several occasions and they just waltzed through to score. Very disappointing. On a good note, we did manage to score tries off some good periods of pressure. However, we must improve if we are to avoid relegation at the end of the season.”
St Ives next league match is at when they entertain Bedford Queens at home on the 9th of February.