Results and Reports 25th February 2007
Under 15's
St. Ives 12 - Peterborough 0
St Ives entertained Peterborough on Sunday on a pitch affected by heavy overnight rain with large areas of 'lying water'. In these conditions a free fast flowing game was not expected and as predicted was not what the crowd of supporters from both sides were entertained with. What transpired was a hard physical game of attrition with both sides giving their all, but not without a high level of skill.
Before the kick off, the St Ives Coaching team had to make some last minute adjustments to their starting line up due to the call up to the Eastern Counties team of Andy Howard, Man of the Match in the previous weeks win against Biggleswade. This meant several positional changes which was reflected in an unusually disjointed display from the St Ives team in the early phases of the match.
From the kick off Peterborough applied the early pressure and St Ives relied on a scrambling defence and last ditch tackles by stand in full back Matt Bligh on several occasions to keep Peterborough out. As the half progressed, St Ives began to settle and started to put together a number of attacking phases themselves with Alex Fry unlucky to be squeezed out close to the corner flag in the bottom corner. Both sides continued to attack whenever possible, however, defences held firm and the half finished with no score on the board.
At half time Team Manager Andy Britton took the opportunity to make several positional and personnel changes which drew quick dividends with St Ives starting to play with a greater cohesion and purpose. For the first time in the match St Ives started to put Peterborough on the back foot and it was no surprise when a quick blind side move, from a scrum on the half way line, by scrum half Andy Cox, saw him draw the Peterborough's defence before releasing Matt Bligh to crash through the final cover and race through to score close to the posts despite last ditch attempted tackles from the covering Peterborough players. Unfortunately, the conversion attempt by stand in kicker John Leak was narrowly missed when the ball ricocheted back off the up-rights.
St Ives continued to take the game to Peterborough and were frustrated on three occasions when, following text book pick and drives by the forwards, control of the ball was lost in the final act of crossing the line. In the past this would have led to heads dropping, however, the confidence and belief in the team, developed over the season, kept heads high and St Ives continued to play excellent structured rugby in deterioratimg conditions.
Finally, the match was put beyond Peterborough when a move straight off the training ground saw Matt Bligh take an inside pass from fly half Liam Cook to score under the posts. This time John Leak made no mistake with the conversion.
For the last few minutes of the half Peterborough pressed for a consolation score, however, the St Ives defence held firm and the score finished, St Ives 12 - Peterborough 0.