St Ives in Seventh Heaven
Match Report for January 15th, 2005
Thorney 2XV vs. St Ives 2XV
After beating Thorney 26-14 last weekend, St Ives 2’s travelled to Thorney for the return fixture. The team were in good spirits, enjoying comfortable wins either side of the New Year.
Thankfully the wind from last weekend had died down and the game started with only a slight head wind. Thorney started the game with a wide kick off which on any normal day would have been left to sail straight into touch. James Milner had different ideas, whether it was poor communication or early match nerves, the huge cry of ‘Mine!’ went up from Milner who proceeded to try and catch the ball with one foot in touch. Not a good start for St Ives who endured a stop-start first half scoring two break away tries from Jack Blackley (Interception on his own 22 yd line) and Dan McCormack (good support play following Mickey Drakes’ jinking run). Adam Clark converted 1.
Both of Thorney’s restarts went to James ‘Soap’ Milner who successfully managed to either spill the ball or knock it straight into touch. St Ives were lucky to score a third first half try, Ross Thompson took a quick tap penalty from 15 yards out, the resulting rucking was quick and clean allowing the ball to be shipped out to Jevon Harrison on the wing who crossed for his first try of the game.
The only real positive to take from the first half was the St Ives solid defence which endured sustained attack from Thorney. Unfortunately poor forward work resulted in messy ball for the backs. Thorney did manage a score in the first half thanks to Ross Thompson being penalised for hands in the ruck, Chris Beeby slotted the penalty kick to make the half time score 17-3 in St Ives favour.
The second half saw a change around for the St Ives attitude, the forwards helped by some choice words from Captain Rob Marland began to move round the pitch. Some good runs from the Brian Richardson, Ross Thompson and Rob Marland, followed by some excellent rucking by the St Ives pack allowed the backs to receive some quick clean ball.
The pressure continued and saw St Ives score 4 unanswered tries. Mickey Drake took his total for the season to 9, collecting a grubber kick from Adam Clark to score under the posts. Dan McCormack showed some long forgotten pace, following some excellent back play, to break away from the defence and score. Jevon Harrison scored another try on the left wing, out pacing his opposite number and Rob Marland was the final try scorer for St Ives, powering over the line. Jack Blackley had taken over kicking duties and scored 3 conversions from 4, making him top scorer with 11 points.
Rob Marland commented after the game sayng: “St Ives were fortunate in the first half, we played on Thorney’s mistakes and were lucky to score 3 unanswered tries. The second half was a vast improvement though. Good rucking and support play showed what St Ives are capable of when they put their minds to it.”
Final Score: Thorney 3 – St Ives 43