Ives well beaten by rampant Oundle

With Ives facing the wind, the first half hour of the contest was very evenly contested. Ives pack was in the ascendancy in the set pieces and strong running by John Paxton was gaining ground.
Indeed one superb cut back by Paxton saw him breach the defence. The supporting Ollie Bartlett received the ball with work still to do, but sprinted round the last Oundle defence to score a fine try. Mickey Drake slotted the conversion.
Oundle came back into the game with a well slotted penalty from distance. There followed a converted try via the forwards after a series of mishaps in the close work for the hosts.
A couple of penalty concessions gave Oundle territory. Expecting another kick to touch, Ives defence switched off. The Oundle 10 tapped and swung the ball wide for it to reach the left wing for the first of his 5 tries of the afternoon.
With players unaccustomed to playing wing for the Bulls forced into action, the visitors realised their advantage and put the full back over on the stroke of half time. 10-23
The second half saw enforced changes. Returning stand-off Jim Robinson was disappointed to join Nick Gunnell on the side lines. Tommy Newman took a knock and skipper Josh Dear was also forced to leave the field after a heavy contact to the knee. It is to be hoped that all recover swiftly.
Severely disrupted, Ives continued to fight, but Oundle’s backs took advantage of the situation to run in 6 second half tries.
Paxton continued to offer much in both defence and attack. Drake moving up to centre also made breaks.
It was just reward that Paxton rounded off a fine personal display to score towards the end of the game.
That the spirit had not been broken was important. The Bulls were beaten by the better side, but can reflect on the passages of play that illustrated what will win games.