St Ives were left to reflect on a final 15 minutes to forget after suffering a heavy defeat last Saturday.

They went down 48-15 at Dunstablians in Midlands Division Three East (South) although more than half of the hosts’ points arrived in the last quarter-of-an-hour.

The Bulls, who were forced into an incredible 11 changes to their starting line-up and handed debuts to Under 17 players Will Nelson and Jack Robinson, and rugby league convert Liam Harrison, had earlier given a fine account of themselves.

Ollie Bartlett eased them ahead with a pushover try converted by Jim Robinson, who later kicked a penalty to ensure the sides were deadlocked 10-10 at the interval.

Bartlett went over again during the second period to reduce St Ives’ arrears to five points and leave the outcome of the contest in the balance.

But, as the fatigue set in, St Ives had no answer to four quickfire Dunstablians tries as they suffered a sad end to a stirring effort.

The second-bottom Bulls host second-placed Long Buckby this Saturday (2.15pm) in their final fixture of 2015.