Hakes Come Unstuck in The Mud at Tiverton

Tiverton 25 v 21 St Ives

Last Saturday St Ives travelled to Devon side Tiverton in their latest Western Counties West league encounter.

Joint Head Coaches Rob Elloway and Paul Thirlby named a few changes as they looked to extend their unbeaten run. Ben Jenkins started in the front row and Tom Chandler in the second row. Sean Stevens started on the flank and Rhys Brownfield at fly half. Joe Parma came into the centre with Pete Mabbott back from injury on the wing. John Lamsin and Cameron Bone were both named on the bench.

Tiverton started the game brightly and put St Ives under pressure for the first quarter of an hour. The St Ives defence was performing well and kept the attacks from the home side at bay. It wasn’t until the 22nd minute of the match that the deadlock was broken. St Ives were awarded an attacking scrum in the Tiverton half, the ball was released and Rhys Brownfield ghosted through the home defence to score his second try in as many matches. He added the conversion himself to give the Hakes a 7 points to nil lead.

As the conditions underfoot worsened the pitch surface began to cut up. It began to become clear that the conditions were to play a major factor in the match as a leveller between the two sides. In the 28th minute Tiverton found a way through the St Ives defence to score their first points of the match. The conversion was missed to make the score Tiverton 5, St Ives 7.

On the stroke of half time the home side managed to find another gap in the St Ives defence and in the last play of the half scored an unconverted try to go in to the break leading by 10 points to 7.

St Ives began the second half brightly. In the first play of the half second row Jamie Prisk shipped a long looping pass out wide to winger Liam Jolly who did well to finish off the move to score St Ives’ second try of the match. Again Brownfield added the conversion to put St Ives ahead by 14 points to 10.

The next period of the match saw Tiverton have their best spell. Their dogged determination saw them break down the St Ives defence and take advantage of the sticky conditions. In the 45th minute they scored a converted try to retake the lead in the match by 17 points to 14.

In the 60th minute they broke through again and scored another try this time unconverted to make the score 22-14. With the home side now beginning to believe that they could upset the form book and win the match it was looking difficult for St Ives and they struggled to put any serious attacks together.

In the 63rd minute the home side extended their lead further when St Ives centre Joe Parma was shown a yellow card for a high tackle and they successfully kicked the penalty to push the score to Tiverton 25, St Ives 14.

With the Hakes trailing by 11 points the last 15 minutes of the match saw them push forward looking for some points of their own. A series of penalties in the 74th minute saw the pressure intensify on the home side as St Ives laid siege in their opponents 22. A Tiverton player was shown yellow for the repeated infringements and eventually St Ives got the try they craved in the 76th minute through Martyn Lawrance. Brownfield kicked the conversion to set up a thrilling finale with the score 25-21 to the home side.

St Ives continued to attack the Tiverton line for the remainder of the match, but they were beaten by the clock and the referee brought the game to a close with Tiverton taking the bonus point win by 25 points to 21.

Despite this defeat St Ives extended their lead in the league table over their closest rivals Devonport Services to 12 points due to Devonport’s match at Kingsbridge being postponed. Devonport also have two games in hand over the Hakes.

St Ives are back in action on Saturday 17th February with a home league game against Torquay. KO at Alexandra Road is scheduled for 2:30pm; any home support would be very welcome.

St Ives: Ben Jenkins, Ben Taylor, Leigh Hocking, Jamie Prisk, Tom Chandler, Harry Parton, Sean Stevens, Martyn Lawrance, Liam Jolly, Rhys Brownfield, Pete Mabbott, Tom Nicholas, Joe Parma, Lewis Thomas, Jacob Ninnes.

Replacements: John Lamsin, Sam Carter, Cameron Bone (All used).