A spirited Huntingdon Stags defence managed to hold off late pressure from St Ives to claim an impressive opening-day 17-14 derby day win.
The senior sides took to the pitch on September 2 for the first Counites 2 Midlands East (South) game of the season and put on a nerve-jangling match to keep the large crowd thoroughly entertained.
Stags started the brightest of the two sides, rewarded with an early penalty to Owain Collard to put his side 3-0 ahead.
Stags continued to apply the pressure, and after a gap opened down the flank, Barney West was on hand to score the first converted try of the campaign for a 10-0 lead.
St Ives began to grow into the game but were thwarted by Stags, who held them up over the line twice before halftime.
St Ives came flying out of the traps in the second half, with John Paxton and Ollie Bartlett both crashing through the Stags defence to score and go 14-10 ahead.
From the kick-off, Ives relinquished a good position with an overambitious offload, which the Stags capitalised on, with Jake Skidmore on hand to collect an offload to score, which Collard converted for a 17-14 lead.
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Both sides then had chances to score, with Collard missing a couple of penalties and Ives looking dangerous with ball-in-hand.
But, the Bulls were unable to breach the Stags' scrambling defence, who held on for a famous victory.
Huntingdon head coach Simon Leader said: "I am overjoyed with the result.
"Our focus for a lot of the pre-season was to develop our shape and how we want to play the game, rather than focus on fitness, and the foundations of that looked good."
"We will enjoy the win and enjoy having a beer in their clubrooms tonight [September 2]. But that's where it ends, and we start building into next week."
Fantastic way to start the season! Really impressed with our attack, taking our chances when they came, and the dog we showed in defence to hold on at the end. Onwards to next week…. #stags #rugby 🦌🏉 https://t.co/24Nijos8uL
— Simon Leader (@Leads12) September 2, 2023
St Ives head coach Paul Humphreys said: "Let's give Stags credit; they took their chances well and, on the balance of play, probably edged the first half.
"We probably could have made some different choices in the last 10 minutes, which would have given us victory.
"It's probably fair to say we underestimated the strength of this league. Rest assured, we will come back stronger."
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