St Ives Roosters certainly put a smile back on the face of Coach Ian Hill with a hard fought victory against Thetford Titans. After the previous week's poor showing against Colchester, the Roosters won their first game at Thetford after previously losing on their last five visits.
What made the win even more remarkable was that the St Ives side travelled with a depleted squad and lost Paul Wilson to a shoulder injury after one minute. The Roosters got off to an impressive start with Charles Paxton opening the scoring after 5 minutes. Roosters moved the ball wide for the Centre to score easily in the corner to give his side a 4 - 0 lead. It was Paxton again who increased the lead with his second try of the game after backing up a break by James Shearman. They extended the lead further when a break by James Yeomans allowed him to score under the posts to give Jack Blackley an easy conversion to give the Roosters a 14 - 0 advantage.
The game then turned into a struggle as both sides made errors and some poor refereeing decisions around the play the ball slowed the game down. The referee then gave a series of penalties against the Roosters which allowed Thetford to get back into the game with a converted try under the posts to reduce the Roosters lead to 8 points.
With the heat affecting both sides the game slowed down. This allowed the Roosters to control the play as Thetford struggled to get out of their own half. Roosters aggressive defence started to turn the game in their favour as James Walker made a break down the left hand side of the field which allowed Bennett to score next to the posts. Blackley converted to give the Roosters a 20 - 6 half time lead.
A determined start to the second half allowed Roosters to extend the lead. This was the best try of the game as Marco Rossi made an initial break and interchanged passes with Walker who fed Shearman to score. To their credit Thetford never gave up and hit back with another converted try under the posts.
Paxton effectively won the game for the Roosters with his third try which was a fine individual effort on the right hand side which Blackley converted. This made the score 30 - 12 and the game looked to be over.
Further refereeing decisions went against the St Ives side. They were harshly penalised with three consecutive penalties. The defence switched off and allowed Thetford to reduce the lead to 30 - 18. This was then followed by a very poor decision by the referee. Two Thetford players crossed in the middle of the field which impeded the Roosters defenders. The Roosters players stopped expecting a penalty but the referee allowed the game to carry on. This led to a Thetford centre racing unopposed to score once again under the posts to make the score 30 - 24.
To their credit Roosters battled on and stood up to the challenge for the last 10 minutes. Numerous punches and acts of foul play by Thetford players were not spotted but the Roosters kept their composure and discipline to secure an important win.
Roosters Head Coach, Ian Hill, commented "I was very pleased with the side today. This is an intimidating place to come to but the players stood up to the challenge and put in a much improved performance".