Hakes Frustrated at North Petherton

North Petherton 22 v 13 St Ives

Last Saturday St Ives travelled to Somerset to face North Petherton in their latest South West One West league match.

Rob Elloway named a strong side including himself at hooker, Kye Beasley came back into the front row. However, with a shortage of second rows, Chris Fuca enlisted himself to partner Jamie Prisk. Ben Watson was out injured while playing for Culdrose. James Wilson came onto the wing with Ben Taylor, Grant Thirlby and Joe Parma on the bench.

On a cold afternoon it was St Ives who made the better start with centre Jack Kessell claiming the first points of the match with a try in the 6th minute that was converted by full back Dan Magee.

North Petherton hit back in the 11th minute when Harry Roberts converted a penalty to make the score 3-7. The Hakes continued to look the more likely to add to their score and in the 16th minute of the half Magee slotted another penalty to make the score 3-10.

The remainder of the first half saw the hosts get themselves back into the match and play most of their rugby in the St Ives half. A series of penalties for offside gave them the chance to put pressure on the Hakes line. In the 34th minute Aaron Gibbs went over for an un-converted try to make the score 8 points to 10. The away side seem not to learn that the giving away of penalties when under pressure merely compounds the problem. Better discipline is called for.

With no further score before the break the sides turned around at half time with all to play for.

St Ives suffered a blow early in the second half when prop Leigh Hocking was unable to continue due to injury. Having already lost their other prop Kye Beasley to injury in the first half and their front row replacement already on the field St Ives were faced to yield to un-contested scrums.

This did not help a game that was already struggling as a spectacle. St Ives did add another penalty through the boot of Magee in the 59th minute to extend their advantage to 5 points at 8-13.

For the remainder of the game it was North Petherton who took the initiative and got a grip of the game, but not in a way that improved the spectacle of the match.

In the 66th minute the hosts scored a try through James Taylor after a break out from their own half. The conversion was added by Adam Wright to give North Petherton the lead for the first time in the match by 15 points to 13. This is becoming a regular occurrence; St Ives lead, but their poor game management, inferior fitness or mind set allows the opposition back into the game.

St Ives struggled to put any penetrating moves together and it was the hosts that had the last say in the match when Tom Hill broke through to score the final try of the match, Wright added the conversion to set the final score in the match at North Petherton 22, St Ives 13.

This was a game that St Ives could and maybe should have won but the coaches will be keen to put things right on the training field this week ahead of St Ives next league game which comes up this coming Saturday when they welcome Devon side Okehampton to Alexandra Road. This is the first of a series of games for the Hakes at Home (see below for details).

St Ives : Kye Beasley, Rob Elloway, Leigh Hocking, Jamie Prisk, Chris Fuca, Chris Quick, Aiden Brassington, Martyn Lawrance, Liam Jolly, Rhys Brownfield, Jack Kessell, Tom Nicholas (Captain), James Wilson, Peter Mabbott, Dan Magee.

Replacements: Ben Taylor, Joe Parma, Grant Thirlby (All Used).

Forthcoming Matches at Home

Sat 3rd November

St Ives v Okehampton 2:30pm KO

Sat 10th November

Cornwall Cup Second Round Tie

St Ives v Launceston 2:00pm KO

Sat 17th November

St Ives v Thornbury 2:30pm KO