Results and Reports 26th November 2006
Under 10's
St. Ives 15 Haverhill 5
Toby Naylon proved to be the difference between the two sides with a brace of well taken tries in the match against Haverhill. Playing against the elements in the first half the pack worked hard against strong opponents to provide ball for the pacy backs to exploit. Sam Hirons and Bernie Augstein both went close early on before Toby Naylon took the ball direct from the back of a maul and outpaced the cover defence to put St. Ives into the lead. After more sustained pressure, Naylon repeated the process in the opposite corner to give the Saints a 10-0 half time lead. In the second half Haverhill narrowed the gap with a well taken try but Sam Hirons went the full length of the pitch to re-establish a 2 try cushion before the end. Further efforts from Haverhill were snuffed out by a tremendous defensive display from Bernie Augstein.
Newmarket 15 St. Ives 10
A disappointing first half display littered with missed tackles cost St. Ives the game against a well organised Newmarket side. Several times the Newmarket backs scythed through the Saints defence and only more sterling tackling from Bernie Augstein prevented a rout before half-time. As it was, Newmarket crossed the line on 3 occasions with only another long range effort from Sam Hirons for St. Ives in the first half. In the second half the performance improved markedly prompted by sniping runs from Tyler Elstub at scrum half but the side only managed one further try when Sam Hirons broke down the blind side after a scrum to score in the corner.
St. Ives 5 Haverhill 0
A tight game with defences on top was settled by a moment of genius from Sam Hirons. Receiving the ball in his own half, he sold an outrageous dummy before sprinting clear of the defenders to score early in the first half. The rest of the match consisted of honest endeavour from both sides but neither side could land a killer blow and the game finished with the narrowest of wins for St. Ives
Newmarket 5 St. Ives 5
Another try from Sam Hirons put St. Ives into an early lead against Newmarket but the Young Bulls just failed to hang on for a win despite more inspired defending from Man of the Matches Bernie Augstein. Augstein tackled anything that moved in a black shirt but with 2 minutes to go the Newmarket scrum half made a clean break from the base of a scrum and outpaced several defenders to bring the game back to all square.
Under 13's
St Ives 32 - Oundle 5
St Ives continued their run of good results this Sunday with a hard fought victory over Oundle at Somersham Rd. Oundle started well and used their strong pack to great effect. Continuous pressure on the St Ives try line soon paid off for Oundle with the opening try of the game which went unconverted. St Ives re-grouped and just before the break scored in the corner. In the second half the Saints picked up the pace and took control and they were soon rewarded a second try. With the wind in their favour St Ives used it to great effect pinning Oundle in their own half for most of the game which eventually resulted in a further 3 tries. Tries scored by Max Dominy, Dale Taylor, Dan Malem, Jack Topham and Alex Colah. Two conversions from Jack Topham and 1 penalty.
Under 16's
St Ives 6 points, Bedford Blues 27
With injuries to key players, St Ives were pleased to welcome back their Eastern Counties player Matt Nice, who replaced Dan Breed at stand off. Breed's injury the previous week proved to be a fractured hip, so he joins Dan Bainbridge on the long term injury list. Nice started well and after early pressure by St Ives, coolly slotted a penalty. However, St Ives bad luck with injuries continued as Dan Hyde, the home skipper, suffered what looked like a bad knee injury and had to watch the remainder of the game from the touchline (third Dan, and he does judo).
St Ives, maintained the pressure, however, and forced a position from which Nice dropped a goal. Unfortunately, St Ives charitable nature then got the better of them and they gifted the ball to Bedford with a poor penalty. Bedford used the ball through the forwards and scored a converted try. Half time 6-7.
Worse was to follow immediately after the break, when attacking hard, St Ives allowed Bedford through a ruck, the flanker fly-hacking the ball down the pitch. St Ives backs recovered the ball and began to attack well, but forcing one pass to many allowed an interception try.
There then followed an extraordinary passage of play. St Ives attacking against the wind were wont to make handling errors. But time after time from the resulting scrums, the front row did their job and joint man-of-the match Calum Richardson, supported by props Ronan Delaney and Tom Dowding, regained possession against the head. Sadly another turnover gave Bedford space and an overlap for a simple score.
Strangely, Bedfod now began to kick away the possession they did win, allowing St Ives other m-o-m Tom Brown to make a number of swerving runs from full back. Great ground was gained each time, but generally poor ball retention by St Ives and their inability to use maul ball quickly meant the attacks fizzled out.
Just before the final whistle, Bedford's stand off dropped a sweet goal, and a clean break through the centre resulted in the final try of the match, which was duly converted.