After two successive away defeats, the Roosters returned to home turf for a must win game against Colchester Romans. The Romans had enjoyed a comprehensive victory last weekend against Thetford and so represented a tough challenge.
The Romans started shakily by losing possession straight from the kick off. From the resulting field position St Ives were able to get across for an early try. The Romans were caught out by a trademark short range dive over from Roosters veteran hooker Andrew Dean but the conversion drifted just wide.
The Romans then regained some composure and were able to apply some useful pressure on the left but the crucial pass was dropped. The Roosters again capitalised and on 5 minutes John Paxton went over for the first of a personal haul of 5 tries. Michael Sykes added the conversion.
The pattern continued for much of the first half with the Romans getting to positive postions but being undone either by errors or hard tackling from the Roosters pack. Paxton added a further brace of tries. The second of which was especially well worked as Michael Sykes kept the ball alive on the last tackle before providing the final pass. One further conversion took the half time score to 20-0.
Any prospect of an easy canter for the Roosters playing downhill in the second half evaporated almost immediately. Now it was the Roosters turn to lose the ball from the kick off. From the ensuing scrum, Colchester worked the ball out to the right to enable their loose forward to get free and score in the corner.
The Roosters attempted to counter but over-elaboration caused the ball to be turned over. The Romans moved forward and when the ball was kicked through their right wing was able to hack the ball on, and regain the ball to touch down in the corner. Another conversion brought the score back to 20-12.
The increasing heat seemed to be sapping energy from both sides. The error rate increased and a string of penalties followed as tempers started to fray.
Eventually it was the Roosters that broke the deadlock on 58 minutes. From a scrum in centre field the ball was worked to Paxton who evaded three tacklers before cutting back to score with an exuberant dive under the posts. Another succesful Sykes conversion helped to ease the pressure further.
The Roosters then entered their best spell of the game. The foundation was laid with a strong performance from the pack. Props Marco Rossi and David Sykes lead the charge with their running and tackling. They were aided by strong support from Michael Cade and the experienced Steve Burke.
The pressure built by this led inevitably to a try as Duncan Potts forced his way over. On 65 minutes Colchester, becoming increasingly frustrated lost one of their replacements to a red card for foul and abusive language aimed at the referee. They were still dangerous but on losing the ball near the Roosters line saw Michael Drake brake away for the Roosters. Drake then fed Paxton to go in for his fifth try of the afternoon.
A second try for Potts sealed victory but their was still time for the Romans to rally with two late scores. However it was too late and the Roosters completed a well earned victory by 44 points to 22.
Speaking after the game, Roosters coach Ian Hill was pleased with the team's effort. “This was a much better performance today. There is still room for improvement and we can eliminate some errors. But I am really pleased with the lads and this was a good result”.
The Roosters now face an away tie with local rivals Cambridge Eagles next Saturday 9 June at 2.30pm.