Hakes Take Victory At Wadebridge

Wadebridge Camels 18 v 22 St Ives

Last Saturday St Ives travelled to North Cornwall in their latest Western Counties West League game. Following their defeat in the cup last weekend, at the hands of Truro, head coach, Paul Thirlby named a side that saw Jon Wright come in to the front row as James Bishop was un-available for this match. Harry Parton returned from injury at number 8 with Archie Mackay not available this week. In the backs Paul Thirlby named himself at fly half. Sam Carter moved back to scrum half with Jordan Gott at full back and Tom Nicholas returned to outside centre.

The game began in still but cold conditions beside the River Camel and it was St Ives who grabbed the first points of the match. The referee penalised Wadebridge for ‘crossing’, with a penalty that Jordan Gott converted, to give them the lead after 7 minutes of play.

Wadebridge hit back with a penalty of their own in the 15th minute to level the match at 3 points each. However, from the restart the Hakes went up a gear to make their first serious attacks into Wadebridge territory. With St Ives putting pressure on the home defence for the first time of the match inside the home 22 it was from a ruck that Martyn Lawrance picked up the ball and made a characteristic strong run that saw him burst through the defence to score the first try of the match. The conversion was added by Gott to put the Hakes ahead by 10 points to 3.

Only two minutes later St Ives were running at the home defence again. This time it was Tom Nicholas, running from deep, who went through the Wadebridge defence to score St Ives second try. Jordan Gott’s reliable boot converted to increase the Hakes lead to 17 points to 3.

For the remainder of the first half Wadebridge re-grouped and put some pressure on the St Ives defence. They came back with a converted try of their own in the 22nd minute and in the 34th minute kicked a penalty to make the score at half time Wadebridge 13, St Ives 17.

The second half could not have begun more positively for the Hakes. Almost straight from the restart prop replacement, Tom Chandler, gathered the ball and outpaced the home defence to score his first try of the season. No doubt home spectators were amazed at the speed of Tom, unaware that he used to play on the wing! This time the conversion was missed, but the Hakes healthy lead was restored at 22 points to 13.

St Ives were reduced to 14 men a couple of minutes later when they lost try scorer Chandler to a yellow card for a high tackle on the Wadebridge full back. Despite being a man down the Hakes defence performed well and kept the home side at bay for long periods in the second half, especially during the ‘sin bin’ period.

With both sides’ defences working well points were hard to come by in the later stages of the match. Wadebridge threatened on numerous occasions, but the Hakes defence stood firm until the very last play of the match. The Camels formed a maul close to the St Ives line which rolled its way over the whitewash to allow them to score what for them was a losing bonus point try. The conversion was missed to make the final score Wadebridge 18, St Ives 22.

This result confirms that the Hakes have turned a corner in their form for the season with victory in recent matches over two of the top five teams in the league. It is also a great repost to the massive defeat suffered in the same fixture last time round, when St Ives could barely put aside to together. Captain, Ben Taylor, Tom Nicholas, Tom Chandler and Jamie Prisk were the only players to represent the club on both occasions on December 6th 2014; sweet revenge, worth the wait.

This coming Saturday St Ives welcome Bude to Alexandra Road, kick-off is scheduled for 2:30pm any home support would be very welcome.

St Ives squad: