Rugby League can be a tough game at times. This was clearly demonstrated by St Ives Roosters and Bury Titans as they battled out a tough encounter as the Roosters secured victory in a close encounter.
Roosters started strongly and opened the scoring after 2 minutes when Bury conceded two consecutive penalties. Strong forward drives allowed David Sykes to cross close to the line to give the Roosters a 4 - 0 lead. From the kick off Roosters lost influential centre, Paul Ashbridge, with a broken nose. Ashbridge dived on the ball from a short kick off but was caught by a stray knee in the face.
The game developed into an end to end contest as Bury hit back with a try from Chris Kent. Roosters conceded a penalty at the play the ball. This allowed Kent to take a quick tap penalty and he used his footwork and speed to score for an easy try.
Defences were on top with full back Jack Blackley prominent for the Roosters. The deadlock was broken on 30 minutes when Bury took the lead as Tom Palmer crossed the line to give them a 8-4 lead. Crucially the easy conversion was missed as this was to prove costly at the end of the game.
Bury opened the second half in determined fashion but lost a player for 10 minutes due two repeated penalties for high tackles
Roosters playing down the slope in second half took advantage and hit back from close range as the returning Ashbridge crossed close to the line. Matt Dear converted to give the Roosters a 10 - 8 lead. The Roosters couldn't maintain their momentum as the Titans hit back on 57 minutes with a well worked try from a scrum. Will Aston scored a fine effort but once again Palmer crucially missed the conversion in front of the posts.
The balance of power shifted again three minutes later as Roosters once again pressed the Bury line. The ball was worked wide and a brilliant off load from Ashbridge allowed Stefan Gallucci to cross the line to score under the posts. Dear once again converted to extend the lead to 16 - 12. Roosters began to dominate the last 15 minutes and were helped as Bury started to lose their discipline towards the referee. Their pressure finally paid as they extended the lead on 71 minutes when James Shearman crashed over the make the score 20 - 12. With Roosters looking like they had secured the victory the Titans hit back on 77 minutes when a chip through was collected by Pete Alston to reduce Roosters lead to 4 points. Once again Palmer missed the kick as Roosters wrapped up the win with a 20 - 16 result.
Roosters Coach Ian Hill commented “We made it difficult for ourselves in the first half through a number of individual errors but we battled on and full credit to the side as they ground out the win against a good Bury side”.
The Roosters next home game is on Saturday 19th June 2010. Kick off 2.30pm against Bedford Tigers at St Ives RFC.