Midlands 6 East (South) Stamford 36 St Ives RFC 13 BULLS took a strong side to Stamford for their opening league fixture but ran into a well-prepared Stamford side with a mobile pack. The home side caught St Ives flat-footed as they raced into a 22-0 lead

Midlands 6 East (South)

Stamford 36 St Ives RFC 13

BULLS took a strong side to Stamford for their opening league fixture but ran into a well-prepared Stamford side with a mobile pack.

The home side caught St Ives flat-footed as they raced into a 22-0 lead, as the Bulls paid for disorganisation in defence.

Bulls managed to turn the tide and successive penalties by Jack Blackley were the beginning of a long phase of pressure from the visitors with the forwards turning the screws to make space for the backs. Blackley found a gap in the Stamford defence to get under the posts to bring the score back to 22-13.

Blackley was sent to the bin in the second half for a shoulder charge and with the tide now turned back in Stamford's favour, Al Jones wrapped the game up for the hosts.

Saints captain Bryan Richardson, who missed the game through injury, said: "It was disappointing as there wasn't a huge difference between the teams on paper. Simple errors gave Stamford the edge, and we just weren't aggressive enough from the start."

n St Ives' next home game is against Thorney on October 4.

n St Neots U13s ran in 73 points against a disappointing Ely side. Callum Austen, Ben Clare and Ben Tyler scored hat-tricks and Alex Purdon ran over twice. The booming boot of Adam Williams made nine conversions to seal an emphatic victory. The U14s went down 15-12 at Ely despite two scores from Connah Fairbrass and a Joe Hough conversion.