A late converted penalty meant victory was agonisingly snatched away from St Ives Rugby Club in a tight 13-13 draw with Long Bucky RFC.
Despite a slow start, a superb second-half try from centre Rees Burns put the Bulls 13-10 ahead before Long Buckby finally forced an error out of the Bull's stubborn defence to kick a straight-forward penalty and share the points.
Following the game, Paul Humphreys said: "If you had offered me a draw on Thursday, I may have said yes!
"We remained resolute until the last few minutes when our discipline let us down and allowed Buckby to kick an easy penalty to draw level.
"As a group, we know we let this one go. All the boys know they put in a shift and dug deep."
Before kick-off, President Mark Smy and Chairman Ross Thompson honoured fullback Ben Fleming with his 100th 1st XV cap, the first player to reach the milestone having played in every age group at the club.
Ben Fleming, having represented the club at every age group level from u7s through to 1st XV, receiving his 100th cap before today's game against @Lbrfc
— St. Ives Rugby (@StIvesRugby) March 4, 2023
Congratulations to Ben on being the first player to achieve this feat.#uptheives pic.twitter.com/3V8PwkTZj4
A large crowd had assembled on the sidelines for the fixture and would've been forgiven for thinking it would be a tough day for the Bulls when Long Buckby stunned the hosts with two quick unconverted tries.
After the fast start from the visitors, the Bulls started to play with more continuity and applied pressure, which they converted into points.
Paul Ashbridge slotted two penalties to make it 10-6 at halftime.
With the game in the balance, it took a rampaging Burns break to put the Bulls ahead when he stretched just over the line for a converted score to make it 13-10.
For the remainder of the game, Buckby kept St Ives pinned in their own half, but their defence remained resolute and frustrated the visitors.
However, it wasn't to be for St Ives when a high tackle in front of the posts with one minute to go allowed Buckby to level the scores and break St Ives' hearts.
St Ives remain tenth in the Counties 1 Midlands East South and face a tough trip next up to Market Bosworth for their penultimate league game of the season on March 11.
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