St Ives vs. Bedford Swifts
This Saturday saw St Ives face top of the table Bedford Swifts, after last weekends loss against Peterborough 2XV in the cup the Bulls were keen to get things back on track.
The game started well with both teams fighting for possession in the early exchanges, the St Ives scrum back to full strength was trying to stamp it's authority from the off and provide the backs with the possession they needed. St Ives struck first, the pack providing quick clean ball found the ball in the hands of Jack Blackley at stand off, deciding to run Jack found the gap open up in front of him and cut through the hole to score under the posts, Blackley was successful with the conversion.
Bedford Swifts were keen to hit back immediately and launched an offensive on the St Ives line, but stout defence held the line strong and Swifts had to resort to a drop goal. The first half continued its game of attrition with both sides enjoying spells of possession and forays into the opposition territory, but with neither side able to break the defensive line. Swifts eventually broke the deadlock and scored out wide, but the conversion attempt missed, putting Swifts in the lead 7-8
About three quarters of the way through the half, St Ives struck again. Launching an attack on the blindside the ball found its way to John Paxton who slipped a tackle and steamed down the line, rounding the last defender and scoring under the posts to give Jack Blackley an easy shot at goal. Jack's attempt was good and took the score to 14-8. Swifts were quick to answer though, taking a penalty attempt not long after the restart, which brought the scores to 14-11.
The next score came again from Swifts, a chip through was collected by the winger who then offloaded in a forward manner, unfortunately missed by the referee, allowing Bedford to score under the posts. The conversion attempt was successful and took the half time score to 14-18 in the visitors favour.
At the turn around St Ives were aware they were facing a battle. After a free scoring first half, they would need to tighten their defence as they now had to play up the hill and into the wind. Swifts used this advantage well and continuously sent probing kicks into the corners, but the St Ives defence held firm and repelled all attacks. In fact the scores remained locked at 14-18 until the last 10 minutes, St Ives unable to launch any significant assault and Bedford being held at every angle finally resorting to a shot at goal. This took the score-line to 14-21 leaving St Ives needing 2 scores to win the game.
The Bulls came out fighting, but could not break the line. With 3 minutes left on the clock a loose pass was kicked through by the Swifts centre who ran on and collected the ball to score next to the posts. The conversion was successful and the game finished St Ives 14 - Bedford Swifts 28.
Speaking after the game Ross Thompson was disappointed. This is a game that could have gone either way; unfortunately it went against us in the final 10 minutes. In hindsight we should have made more use of the slope and wind in the first half but I am happy with how the guys battled in defence. Jack Blackley had a good game at Fly half and the front row did their job tremendously. It is just unfortunate that we could not come away with the result. We need to look forward now to the rest of the season, we face OG's away in a fortnights time, closely followed by Bedford Queens at home - we must come away with 2 wins from these games and it is that which we will concentrate on and put this result behind us.