St Ives Roosters travelled to the Rugby League Conference Champions, Northampton Demons, looking to pull off a surprise result. Unfortunately there was no surprise as the Demons controlled the game and put in an impressive performance.
In a repeat of the previous weeks game against league leaders, Bedford, the Roosters started the game very poorly mainly due to a number of missed tackles in the middle of the pitch. The Demons first score came as their fullback collected a high kick and broke through the middle of the Roosters defence to score unopposed under the posts for a converted try. Things got worse for the Roosters when the conceded a penalty near their line a couple of minutes later. This allowed the Northampton scrum half to dummy the defenders to cross easily for a very poor try. The points came coming for the Demons as they scored another couple of converted tries to make the score 22 – 0 after 17 minutes.
Finally the Roosters the Roosters came back into the game with an unconverted try by Paul Ashbridge. The ball was moved wide which created gaps in the Northampton defence which allowed Ashbridge to power over the line. The Roosters were now back in the game and were unlucky not to reduce the Demons lead as Ashbridge was held up over the line. Strong runs by the Peel brothers Adam and Sam nearly brought points but the Northampton defence was resolute and withstood the pressure.
They hit back again on 30 minutes when a kick through on the 6th tackle was not dealt with and things got worse two minutes before half time when the Roosters defensive line was once again broken in the middle of the field. This allowed the Demons to extend their lead to 34 – 4 at half time.
The Roosters started the second half brightly and were rewarded straight away with a try by substitute Dan Fry. The Roosters drove the ball up the left hand side of the field which created an overlap for Fry to side step a defender and cross easily. Adam Peel converted to make the score 34 – 10.
This was to be the last high point of the game for the Roosters as the Demons secured the win with converted tries on 49 and 55 minutes. The Roosters cause should have been helped when a Northampton player was sin binned for 10 minutes. Unfortunately they couldn’t exploit this as Stephen Judge, Sam Peel and Adam Peel went close.
The Demons rounded off the scoring with a further two converted tries in the last 10 minutes to make the final score 58 – 10.
A disappointed Roosters Coach Ian Hill commented “We came up against a good Northampton side today and were punished for our mistakes. The score was a bit harsh but overall it was a poor performance by the side”.
Roosters next game – Saturday 3rd July – St Albans “A” at St Ives RFC. Kick off 2.30pm.