For the second week in a row the Roosters completed a comprehensive victory over one the division's weaker sides. Northampton travelled with the bare minimum 13 players, including a few who did not appear to have the fitness and mobility required for Rugby League
The Roosters were on top right from the start. A penalty was forced following a vigorous kick off return. The Roosters moved the ball to the left where Eddie Embley was on hand to score. The conversion was missed from the touchline but only a few minutes later Oli Jones went over on the opposite flank and James Allen added the conversion.
With the strengthening wind behind them St Ives added a third try on 10 minutes with the experienced Steve Burke dummying his way through the defence. A further conversion was duly added by Allen who added a third sucessful kick five minutes later after Andrew Dean had spun over from short range.
The Roosters now seemed to be causing mayhem every time they had the ball. Jack Blackley, fresh from his hattrick the previous week, made a clean break and then offloaded to Chris Saunders whose quick hands put in Allen for a further score. Then on 21 minutes Lee Kupyn was able to barge over and the ensuing conversion took the score to 34-0
After running so hot in the opening quarter the Roosters slacked off somewhat. The referee came to the aid of visitors with a series of questionable penalties and on 30 minutes they put together a spell of pressure and responded with an unconverted try. Any hopes of a comeback were undermined just before half time when the Northampton loose forward was shown the red card for a reckless high tackle.
The Roosters turned round to face the slope and the wind determined to inflict some more pain on the 12 man Casuals. Instead though they found themselves on the back foot due to some over ambitious play as well as indiscipline in defence. On 45 minutes Northampton were able to exploit this with their second try of the game - a dive over in the right corner. The Roosters hit straight back though. Allen found the touchline from the kick off and the resulting platform allowed St Ives to get the ball to Jones to score on the left. The conversion straight into the fierce wind proved impossible, however.
A sin binning on 58 minutes reduced Northampton to 11. Three powerful drives from the following penalty set up McCormack for a score and two minutes later Marco Rossi went in for another.
Despite the efforts of Northampton to slow the game down with a series of increasingly violent interventions there was still time for Embley to add a second try and Ben Pinion to complete a move from the right to the left touchlines.
With 11 tries registered for the second week in a row, Head Coach Ian Hill was able to take satisfaction from the result although the remaining 4 games should prove a tougher test.
Next Saturday the Roosters travel to Colchester and then return to Somersham Road for a home tie against Thetford on July 19th at 2.30pm. Admission is free and all are welcome.