Roosters lose discipline in home defeat

St Ives Roosters 4 - 42 Northampton Casuals

ST IVES Roosters saw their discipline desert them as they went down to a heavy home defeat to Northampton Casuals on Saturday.

The Roosters gave Northampton an 11-try drubbing in the corresponding fixture last year, but the Casuals had clearly come a long way since, and they came into the game on the back of two 70-point tallies in their opening fixtures.

The home side got off to a bright start with a short range try from Steve Baskerville, though the conversion was pulled wide. It didn't take long for Northampton to strike back however, and they went over in the right corner to level the scores.

They went in front when Matthew Derry exploited weakness on the St Ives left flank to touch down.

The Roosters were able to stem the tide for a while with some solid defence, but a lapse in concentration allowed Northampton easy yards and Kier Flatt stepped through the Roosters' line to score under the posts.

The hosts had another chance to score near the break, but a spilled ball put an end to the move, and the game reached the break at 4-14.

Playing against the slope in the second half, the Roosters' defensive discipline evaporated. The contest was effectively over in five minutes following a quick fire brace of tries from Stefan Fowler, and Northampton full-back Mike Hulme evaded the defence to jog in from 60 metres.

A full-scale brawl broke out as the Roosters grew frustrated, with the majority of players from both teams getting involved. Christopher Sykes was sin-binned along with a Northampton player. There remained time for Seb Ward and Oli Rees to add further tries to take the final score to 4-42.

On Saturday May 30 the Roosters travel to Bury St Edmunds, the new home of the Thetford Titans, looking for an improvement in form.