FOR the second consecutive season, St Ives Roosters suffered heartbreak in the Eastern Region Grand Final at the hands of Bedford Tigers. The Roosters went into the game as the form team in the division and were confident of gaining revenge over the tiger

FOR the second consecutive season, St Ives Roosters suffered heartbreak in the Eastern Region Grand Final at the hands of Bedford Tigers.

The Roosters went into the game as the form team in the division and were confident of gaining revenge over the tigers.

In a pulsating final, St Ives opened the scoring after three minutes through a Marco Rossi Try under the posts. Rossi was fed the ball to power his way over the line to give Michael Sykes an easy conversion to give the Roosters an early 6-0 lead.

Bedford hit back in the 10th minute when a break in the middle of the field allowed the Tigers to open their account before extending their lead after a loss of concentration by Roosters.

The next period of play was dominated by the defences as both sides worked tirelessly to gain an advantage. The Roosters were severely hampered when on 20 minutes captain Dan McCormack was sin-binned for fighting. This was an extremely controversial decision as the referee decided not to sin bin the Bedford player as well.

This galvanised St Ives as they hit back to regain the lead through Charles Paxton, though Bedford hit back with another unconverted try on 30 minutes.

Once again defences were on top in the second half with both sides giving their all. Crucially, Bedford took the lead in the 50th minute with a fine individual try down the middle of the pitch. This was converted to give the Tigers a six point lead.

With both sides starting to tire in the heat, the game started to open up with both sides starting to move the ball around.

Unfortunately for the Roosters, frustration set in as a couple of decisions went against them. A penalty was given away near the posts which allowed Potts to extend the Bedford lead to 20-12.

St Ives didn't give up and they continued to pressure the Tigers line. This paid off when the ball was moved wide for Charles Paxton to score his second try. The conversion was missed to make the score 20-16. The Roosters continued to push for a late try but the Bedford defence held firm to secure their victory.

Roosters Coach Ian Hill said: "We didn't have much luck on our side and maybe with a little bit more concentration we could have won the game.

"The players should be proud of their efforts this season and there is a lot to build on for next year'.