Saints 48 vs 13 Stoke Old Boys

Last weekend saw the Saints take on the challenge of the Senior Vase opening round in glorious, if not a little windy, conditions. Having been frustrated the week before with the postponement of the scheduled League match away to Leicester Forest, Saints were looking to get back to winning ways and arrived at their destination before the opposition had even opened the car park gate.

After a lengthy warm up and period of relaxation Saints took to the field. A line-up that consisted of great ability and no real positional experience at this level saw Rhod Howcroft and Phil Fernie start at loosehead and tighthead respectively – a combination that worked well and resulted in some added mobility and sumptuous skills in the loose. From the first phase it was clear that Stoke OB wanted to defend narrowly and Saints needed no invitation to run wide. New recruit and debutante Stewart Whitelaw was the first to cross the line after big support lines on his outside caused confusion amongst SOB's defence touching down under the posts unopposed.

The next try was one for the annals of history. Phase after phase of big carrying from the Saints pack saw Aiden Jordan break the gain line only to be caught just short of the 40m line. The ball went to Whitelaw from the base and he found Nick Ashford in full flow. Ashford’s deft feet and sparkling hands then drew in all defenders and he popped a short but effective pass to part-time prop Howcroft, who found Dingemans in space out wide to dot down. Beech made it 2/2 off the tee and Saints were 0-14 up with no end to their exploits in sight.

Aiden Jordan added the next try. A mazy and pacey jaunt from his own half saw him beat 19 defenders, ignore all support and eventually cross the line having run a total of 213 metres with the ball. Maximum efficiency, it was not. Delightful to watch, yes it was. Whitelaw crossed for his second shortly after, again profiting hugely from chaotic support lines from his pack to crash down with Beech adding the extras to make it 0-26. The game then became scrappy with a recently substituted SOB player seeing yellow and reducing Stoke Old Boys to 14 just before the break. Half-time, 0-26 to the travelling Saints.

A poor start to the second half, with Saints struggling to come to terms with the change in the elements, saw SOB’s chip and chase effectively to score and seemingly light the touch paper of their illustrious comeback. They scored again, a blind side dart from the scrum half caught Saints off guard and Dan Court was left in no mans land, powerless to prevent their 3 on 1 overlap. SOB’s had clawed back two unconverted tries, added a penalty and made it 13-26.

That question was swiftly answered by Callum Austen. The makeshift Centre, moving from the back-row just before kick-off, sliced through SOB's defence and eventually crossed the line carrying the full-back and a scrum-half. Beech slotted the conversion from out-wide. 13-33. Ross Hubbard’s galavanising words under the posts were doing the trick…

Straight from the kick off, Dingemans scored his second. None of us remember how due to glaring sunlight and being a long way from any support he probably bunny hopped his way through a number of people before greedily attempting to steal the show and cross the line. Aiden Jordan quickly followed that up with another individual effort, this time hissing and fizzing his way through the opposition like a hot-headed teenage boy’s heavily modified, dump valved Honda Civic. Beech missed both conversions. Saints were still looking at the 50+ points mark…could they make it. 13-43.

In short, no. Kieran Sanham was working hard, coming off his wing for large portions of the game and looking to get involved. When he didn’t, George Osborne came on in his place to find some space in the SOB’s 22. After long and heavy carries from Joe Sales, Matt Cartwright and Phil Fernie, Will Smith found Osborne in space and all he had to do was fall on it to make it 13-48. 50 points was in sight…

Until Beech missed a sitter. Final score Stoke Old Boys 13-48 St Neots Saints.

Skipper Ross Hubbard had this to say:

“A change of competition an scenery definitely seems to have helped after struggling in the league recently. We put together a top performance with several impressive contributions across the park and hopefully we can take this momentum back into the league next week"