St Ives 2's 15 - Bedford Queens 2's 27
A St Ives team full of experience and a few new faces to the game entertained a strong Bedford Queens 2nd team at Somersham Road last satarday. After 10 mins St Ives realised that this was going to be an evenly fought battle, with both teams having the same amount of possession and time in the opponents halfs.
St Ives had the better first half with the forwards wining the ball with some great loose work by N0.8 Rob Marland, prop James Bennet and 'new boy' Roderick Hardy securing good ball for Lee 'Reaction' Jackson to play with.
When St Ives had the ball they attacked with pace, power and plenty of pride, but once again their defence was even better, with some massive hits from Paul Spencer, 'new inside centre' Jason Price and Vice Captain and full back Ben Pinion. It was good pressure built by the St Ives pack which made the Queens pack give away a penalty for being off side 10 metres from their own posts. St Ives Captain Oliver Scott did not hesitate in asking his Fly Half, Spencer to convert the penalty which gave St Ives a lead of 3-0.
Queens came back immediately and scored 2 quick tries, but St Ives started to play again and a fantastic powerful break from the back of the scrum by Marland taking at least four of their defenders with him allowed Price to score a fantastic try made by some great support work, Spencer got the conversion and St Ives went in at half time with score at 10-10.
St Ives did not start the second half how they would of liked allowing 3 soft tries and a conversion go pass them. But this gave the home side some motivation and a lift as they started to play good, strong rugby again. Some strong runs by Second Row Mickey Blackley and prop Tim Lumley-Good allowed St Ives to carry on going forward and hurting the opposition's defence. When the St Ives pack put Queens under pressure they just kept on giving away penalties and after a tap penalty by Jackson, Rob Marland went over to score a deserved try, unfortunately Spencer missed his first kick of the season, (from the tee). St Ives carried on running the ball back at Queens rite until the final whistle, and the home side finished showing the opposition that they can play rugby by finishing on a high. The game ended with the score 15-27 to Queens, Captain Scott said after the game "every player gave 100% throughout the game, this side deserves a win. We are not far away from wining, we tasted it today, and if we play like this every week, most sides will crumble at our quality rugby".
Try Scorers
Jason Price
Rob Marland