Roosters win secures home advantage

St Ives Roosters 44 Cambridge Eagles 18 ST IVES Roosters kept their discipline to record a crucial victory over local rivals Cambridge Eagles. The win means the Roosters have secured home advantage for when the sides meet again in a fortnight in the leag

St Ives Roosters 44 Cambridge Eagles 18

ST IVES Roosters kept their discipline to record a crucial victory over local rivals Cambridge Eagles.

The win means the Roosters have secured home advantage for when the sides meet again in a fortnight in the league playoffs.

The visitors got off to the perfect start after five minutes when Alex Miles-Dinham crossed the line but St Ives soon hit back.

A penalty in the Cambridge half created space for the home side's Michael Cade to crash over and moments later captain Andrew Dean put Roosters in the driving seat with a close-range effort.

Miles-Dinham pulled the scores level at 10-all following a home mistake but from then on Roosters were in control.

Indiscipline in the ruck saw a constant stream of penalties awarded to the home side and they took full advantage with tries from John Paxton, Michael Sykes and a second from Dean.

The Roosters, celebrating their 15th anniversary, went into half time 26-10 ahead and continued their good work after the break.

The referee tired of Eagles' ill-discipline and sent off two visiting players (including ex-Rooster Tim White) and sin-binned another.

With Cambridge down to 11 players the Roosters had no problems taking advantage of the extra space created.

Jack Blackley scored under the posts, Michael Drake burst through from 50 yards and late tries from Sykes and Duncan Potts completed the rout for a 44-18 victory.

Roosters' coach Ian Hill said: "I have to praise my players for maintaining their discipline but I was disappointed that our game plan was disregarded once Cambridge had been reduced to 11 men and the tie was won.