Midlands 6 East (South) St Neots 20 St Ives 20 TENSION gripped the air before the start of this very competitive derby at the Common between the two Saints outfits. The St Ives Bulls forwards started strongly into the wind, dominating the St Neots pack

Midlands 6 East (South)

St Neots 20 St Ives 20

TENSION gripped the air before the start of this very competitive derby at the Common between the two Saints outfits.

The St Ives Bulls forwards started strongly into the wind, dominating the St Neots pack in the scrum and line. Good work in the loose to keep the ball alive pressured St Neots into a penalty which Paul Ashbridge duly kicked into the corner, leading to a line out deep in the home team's half.

The resultant maul saw Mario Jessop crash over the line to give the Bulls the lead. The St Neots' backs came more into the game and with stacks of pace and depth they were a continual threat. It was no surprise that zippy centre Sam Peel broke through the Bulls defence to score in reply.

Neots then took the lead with a try from their fly-half Adam Porter, running in support of backs weaving through the visitors' defence. St Ives then bounced back when fly-half Mickey Drake intercepted a poor pass from the St Neots' wing to run 50 yards into the corner to score.

Despite solid forward mobility by the Bulls, including some clever work in the loose by open-side flanker and man-of-the-match James Cannon, St Neots took the lead back with another long run by Sam Peel.

After a penalty a piece, the Bulls took the game back to St Neots with five minutes to go, a knock on by the St Neots fullback resulting in a scrum. A shift in the pack saw Ross Thompson drive over the line to tie the game. A missed difficult conversion left the game all square at 20-all, shortly followed by the final whistle.

"The score was typically close for a game with the top two teams in the League. It was a hard game that everyone in the team threw themselves at wholeheartedly" said St Ives captain Bryan Richardson.