Hakes Maintain 11 Point Lead at Top of the League
St Ives 27 v 14 Kingsbridge
Last Saturday St Ives welcomed Devon side Kingsbridge to Alexandra Road in their latest Western Counties West league game.
With St Ives keen to maintain their unbeaten home record joint head coaches Paul Thirlby and Rob Elloway made a few changes to the side that started last week against Paignton. Kye Beasley came back into the front row, Jamie Hosking returned at lock. Liam Jolly moved from the wing to Scrum half, Paul Thirlby named himself at fly half with Grant Thirlby moving to full back. Tom Chandler came on to the wing and Sean Stevens made a return among the replacements.
The game began with Kingsbridge on the front foot, for the first 10 minutes they pressed St Ives back into their own half as they looked for an early breakthrough. The visitors attacks were met with a well organised St Ives defence that kept the visitors from making the breakthrough they craved.
A succession of penalties gave St ives the impetus to turn defence into attack and in the 18th minute Rhys Brownfield kicked the first awarded in a kickable position to give St Ives a 3 points to nil lead.
As the home side began to pile on the pressure the visitors defence became more desperate and in the 28th minute the referee lost patience with the Kingsbridge players and one of them was shown a yellow card for repeated offences at the breakdown.
As the penalties were awarded St Ives elected for the scrum and pushed home their advantage up front forcing the referee to award a penalty try in the 29th minute following further infringements from the Kingsbridge set piece.
With St Ives now in front by 10 points to nil they began to take control of the game and pressed home further attacks through their powerful pack which was beginning to cause the visitors all sorts of problems.
An attacking lineout in the 38th minute was the platform for the next points for St Ives when Paul Thirlby crossed for an unconverted try that gave the Hakes a 15 points to nil lead at the half time whistle.
The second half began with St Ives continuing to press home their advantage up front. The St Ives scrum was dominant and kept forcing the visitors into errors, it wasn’t long before the next points for the home side were scored. This time it was Rhys Brownfield with a silky run from midfield eluding the Kingsbridge defence with a couple of dummies who touched down in front of the clubhouse to score St Ives third try. He converted himself to put the Hakes ahead by 22 points to nil with 49 minuses gone.
Kingsbridge managed to break out of their own half and apply some pressure of their own from the restart and as they looked for their first points of the match the referee penalised the St Ives defence and sent prop Kye Beasley to the sin bin for 10 minutes. The visitors pressed home the advantage of the extra man and scored their first try of the match through Jake Vincent with Thom Leman converting to make the score St Ives 22, Kingsbridge 7.
Despite conceding a try the Hakes pushed on as they looked for their fourth and bonus point scoring try. It came in the 76th minute from another dominant scrum where they pushed the visitors back over their own line allowing number 8 Martyn Lawrance to touch the ball down. No Conversion this time but St Ives now held a match winning lead at 27 points to 7.
In the final play of the match the visitors did score another consolation try through Stuart Windsor with Leman converting again to set the final score at St Ives 27, Kingsbridge 14.
This victory maintains St Ives 11 point league in the Western Counties West league over the 2nd placed team Devonport Services. The Hakes are back in action this coming Saturday with an away trip to Devon side Tiverton. KO in Devon is scheduled for 2:30 pm, any travelling support would be very welcome.
St Ives: Kye Beasley, Ben Taylor, Leigh Hocking, Jamie Prisk, Jamie Hoskin, Harry Parton, Chris Quick, Martyn Lawrance, Liam Jolly, Paul Thirlby, Lewis Thomas, Rhys Brownfield, Tom Nicholas, Tom Chandler, Grant Thirlby.
Replacements: Rob Elloway, Sean Stevens, Ben Jenkins (all used).
