For the second consecutive season St Ives Roosters suffered heartbreak in the Eastern Region Grand Final at the hands of Bedford Tigers.
The Roosters went into the game as the form team in the division and were confident of gaining revenge over the Tigers.
In a pulsating final, St Ives opened the scoring after three minutes through a Marco Rossi Try under the posts. Rossi was fed the ball to power his way over the line to give Michael Sykes an easy conversion to give the Roosters an early 6-0 lead.
Bedford hit back in the 10th minute when a break in the middle of the field allowed the Tigers to open their account. Luckily for the Roosters, the conversion was missed.
From the kick off the Roosters lost their concentration and allowed Bedford to take the lead. The kick off from John Paxton appeared to be knocked on. As the Roosters players waited for the referee to blow the whistle, he signalled to ‘play on’ which allowed Bedford to move the ball up the field. A series of off loads allowed them to cross near the corner to take a 8-6 lead.
The next period of play was dominated by the defences as both sides worked tirelessly to gain an advantage. The Roosters were severely hampered when on 20 minutes Captain Dan McCormack was sin-binned for fighting. This was an extremely controversial decision as the referee decided not to sin bin the Bedford player as well.
This galvanised St Ives as they hit back to regain the lead. The ball was moved out wide which allowed Charles Paxton to score. Sykes successfully converted to give the Roosters a 12-8 lead.
Bedford hit back with another unconverted try on 30 minutes. The ball was kicked through over the line for a Tigers player to get the try. This left the scores tied at half time 12-12.
Once again defences were on top in the second half with both sides giving their all. Crucially Bedford took the lead in the 50th minute with a fine individual try down the middle of the pitch. This was converted to give the Tigers a 6 point lead.
With both sides starting to tire in the heat, the game started to open up with both sides starting to move the ball around. The next score would be crucial but an unfortunate injury to the Bedford full back Rich Sinclair stopped the game for 30 minutes. Sinclair broke his ankle in a tackle and had to be treated on the pitch by paramedics.
When the game restarted both sides went for the win. Unfortunately for the Roosters, frustration set in as a couple of decisions went against them. A penalty was given away near the posts which allowed Potts to extend the Bedford lead to 20-12.
St Ives didn’t give up and they continued to pressure the Tigers line. This paid off when the ball was moved wide for Charles Paxton to score his second Try. The conversion was missed to make the score 20-16. The Roosters continued to push for a late try but the Bedford defence held firm to secure their victory.
Roosters Coach Ian Hill commented ‘This was a very close game which could have gone either way. Unfortunately we didn’t have much luck on our side and maybe with a little bit more concentration we could have won the game. The players should be proud of their efforts this season and there is a lot to build on for next year’.