In a pulsating game St Ives Roosters pushed undefeated league leaders Bedford Tigers all the way in a contest that either side could have won. The fixture is one of the most keenly contested fixtures in the South of England and both sides put an exciting contest for the spectators in poor weather conditions.
The Roosters made a terrible start to the game as they conceded 16 unanswered points in 12 minutes. Sam Richbell opened the scoring for the Tigers after 60 seconds. The Roosters knocked on at the kickoff which resulted in a scrum 10 metres from their line. Richbell picked up from the base of the scrum to cross the line from his powerful run. Things got even worse for the Roosters as Richbell once again broke through some weak defending to race 50 metres after 3 minutes. Both Richbells tries were converted to give the Tigers a 12 – 0 lead. A stunned Roosters side conceded a third try after 12 minutes after soaking up more pressure near their line. The ball was moved wide for Svend Larsen to score in the corner for an unconverted try.
The Roosters finally hit back after 17 minutes with an unconverted try from Ashley Eusden. This was followed up 10 minutes later as Roosters centre Sam Peel started to impose himself on the game. The Tigers were struggling to cope with his forceful runs and he crossed to open his account for another unconverted try to bring St Ives back into the game.
With the Roosters finally getting into their stride they pounced on a number of Bedford handling errors to take the lead just before half time. Two tries from brothers Callum and Jamie Laing, which were both converted by Matt Dear, took the Roosters into a 20 – 16 half time lead.
The second half started brightly for the Roosters as they extended their lead on 53 minutes with Eusden scoring his second try of the game. With the weather conditions deteriorating the conversion was crucially missed but the Roosters pressed on and once again a forceful run from Peel got him over the line to extend their lead to 28 – 16.
With 20 minutes to go the Roosters looked to be in a commanding position but like the start of the first half they went to sleep and let Bedford back into the game. The Tigers hit back with a Gary Flook unconverted try to reduce the lead to 8 points. Handling errors by both sides became more prevalent and with 10 minutes to go the Roosters failed to deal with the kick off from Flooks try. The ball was allowed to go into touch and Tigers recovered the ball at the scrum.
Two repeat sets put pressure on the Roosters line which allowed Dolan to cross for an unconverted try. With two minutes to go the Roosters were clinging on to a 4 point lead the Roosters could not hold out and Aspinall crossed for a converted try to give them a slender two point lead and the game.
A disappointed Roosters Michael Drake commented “We let ourselves down today as we failed to concentrate enough at the start and end of the game but we will move on and look forward to putting things right next week at Northampton."
Roosters next fixture is away to Northampton Demons on Saturday 26th June kick off 2.30pm. This game will be played at Brackley RFC.