Bulls downed by Swifts

As the season draws to a close Ives travelled to Bedford to tackle Bedford Swifts for the first time, previous attempts having been thwarted by the wonderful English weather.

The Bulls kicked off, and that was pretty much the last they saw of the ball for a good 10 minutes. Swifts, being the beneficiaries of the visitors infringing, were able to launch a stream of attacks. Having hit the post with one attempt from the tee, Bedford continued to attack which ultimately ended with a converted score.

From the restart another penalty enabled the home side to press again, but a spilled ball gave Ives their first meaningful possession of the afternoon.The ball was moved upfield before one of many handling errors prevented an assault on the line. The home side were now infringing with a 'no arms' tackle causing the inhfuential Ollie Raine to leave the pitch with a serious looking injury. From the resulting penalty, Ives pushed forward only to gift the ball to Swifts, only for them to spill the ball, quick recycling provided space for Albiee Tayedzerwa to round his opposite number to reduce the arrears to 2 points.

This quickly became a lead as Cullan Smy intercepted a Bedford attack to race clear from his own 22 with Mitch Newman adding the extras.

With Ives now dominant they were attempting to run from everywhere, but another infringment gave the home side an easy exit. They took full advantage to press forward and drive up the pitch to retake the lead with another converted score.

With this momentum switch Ives mess up a scrum with the home side claiming their third score of the half. It got worse for St. Ives as, following the restart, Michael Sykes was asked to take a 10 minute break for another high tackle.

The resulting penalty was kicked to touch, but the visitors claimed the lineout, the ball finding its way to Adam Williams who glided around the defence up the home side's 22 before he was tackled. Support was on hand to move the ball out to fly half Smy who grubbered it through with Max Flint winning the race and expertly dived to scoop the ball and dive over to narrow the gap to four points at the break.

The second half started strongly for St. Ives with Alex Henly breaking clear but, without support, the Bulls were not able to make full use of the ground made and Swifts cleared downfield. Ives lineout was overthrown presenting Swifts with a simple score.

St. Ives came back and were pressing hard but handling errors along with further injuries to Rees Burns and Alex Henly prevented them building up a head of steam. They were unable to make numerical advantage count as Swifts were temporarily reduced to fourteen because of the inability to hold onto the ball. With the home side easily repelling the visitors, they were able to gain some territory and being awarded a penalty in front of the posts opted to take the shot at goal to increase their advantage to 14 points.

Finally Ives were able to string some passed together to stretch the defence and Smy was able to offload, in the tackle, to Connor Newsome who, despite the defenders attentions powered to the line with the conversion slotted, Ives were now only seven points adrift and believed they could still snatch something from the game. This belief was quickly shattered as Swifts drove Ives off their own scrum, racing clear to restore the 14 point advantage. The gloom spread for Ives as Bedford put together a good passage of play with the ball being moved to both sides of the pitch for their first unconverted try.

The game was up for the Bulls, but there was one last opportunity as they put Newsome clear in their own 22, unfortunately the tryline was too far away as he was dragged down 10 metres short of having the last word. Swifts, having made the most of their opportunities claiming a deserved 43-24 win.