Pitchero

St Ives (Midlands)

Northampton Bbob

D Hyde, P Ashbridge (4), J Dear, J Meadows (2), J Naylor, P Fahey

Tries

P Ashbridge (6), M Drake

Conversions

Penalty Try

Sat 13 Jan 14:15 - Midlands Division - Midlands 3 East (South) Full time

Report

Highlights

Selection

League round up

Bulls thump visitors with highly entertaining display

By Phil Brown

Ives continue their run with comprehensive victory

Having had a close match at BBOB early in the season, Ives were delighted to run out with a good win. Stand-in skipper Mickey Drake commented, “We were apprehensive before the start of the game and the score doesn’t reflect the fact that BBOB fought for the entire 80. Unfortunately for them, we took our chances and we’re happy to look forward to the tough encounter we’ll face next week.”
The game did not start well for the Ives as they conceded ground via penalties in the first minutes. BBOB could not take advantage as great work at the breakdown by Josh Dear turned over possession on the home 5 metre line.
Sweeping upfield, patient play from a well worked line out saw the ball retained by the Ives. Following a series of phases, Dan Hyde was the delighted recipient of a pass to open the scoring.
BBOB attacked from the kick off, but could not convert the pressure into points. Ives again played well to gain ground, forcing an offence. A quickly taken penalty by Josh Meadows released Paul Ashbridge to score the second.
Ives were playing with purpose and put the visitors under pressure. A lack of knowledge of the new laws saw a penalty gained for the hosts as BBOB kicked through a ruck. From the ensuing lineout, a delicious delayed pass by Ashbridge saw Josh Dear steam through a gap to score under the posts.
Ives were in the ascendant. A high tackle penalty was nudged to the corner and a superbly executed line out maul saw Josh Meadows score.
Half time 26-0
Determined to keep up the pressure, the Bulls started the second half superbly. A training ground move saw Ollie Raine release John Naylor from the base of the scrum. Excellent hands between supporting forwards and backs, a break by Alex Henly and swift transference of the ball finally saw Naylor score what may be the try of the season.
Severely under the cosh at scrum time, BBOB next conceded a penalty try.
After a thrilling attack down the right flank, space out left was spotted and good execution saw Meadows in for his second.
Two tries swiftly followed from the visitors’ kick offs as they had no answer to first the direct running of tommy newman and second the scrum power of the Bulls. Both resulted in tried for Ashbridge, who took fine line to pierce the opposition defence.
More was to come as Ives continue to play their patterns. Stretching the BBOB defence once more, Ashbridge again sliced through the defence for his fourth of the day.
The final score came after a break from their own half. With all Bulls wishing to add their names to the score sheet, it was Pete Fahey who added the final touch in the corner.
Ashbridge added 7 conversions to the tally.
The astute amongst will note that the final score does not reflect this report. The result is of course always determined by the arbiter. Amen to that. The PT will be scratched from the record for those counting…. 