League and county cup double success for March Bears

March Bears faced their final game of the season hoping to both win the County Cup and maintain their unbeaten record

They were to face a very strong St Ives side and completed their victory in a nerve shredding second half which saw the two sides locked together with a two point difference right up to the last few minutes of the game, but the Bears, as they have done on many occasions, finished the match at full tilt and scored both a converted try and a fantastic penalty to put the game out of the reach of St Ives.

March Bears , as usual opened the game playing their typical high pressure blitzkrieg style of rugby repeatedly forming open play rucks and feeds at high speed.

This saw them opening the score in the first two minutes with a great run by number 8 Bryn Pughsley down the wing.

five minutes later, St Ives were caught killing the ruck which ended with Sam Howat slotting over a penalty to make it 8 - 0.

The very experienced St Ives side were totally shocked by the speed of the March Bears style of play and fell further behind when a good passing move saw captain Billy Dean go over the line under the posts for a second try in the thirteenth minute which was converted this time by Sam Howat.

The Bears were now up 15 - 0 and with less than a quarter of the game gone.

The St Ives side then caught their team breath and the Bears gave away three kickable penalties over the next 25 minutes, all for offside offences which saw the lead reduced to 15 - 9.

Sam Howat scored another penalty on the stroke of half time for St Ives’ offside offence meaning the teams turned round at 18 - 9.

Both sides were having to come to terms that with this being a county final and the referee was linked to his touch judges by headphone and therefore the chances of beating the offside line was unlikely.

The second half started the same as the first half but this time it was St Ives who scored a converted try in two minutes when March made a mistake allowing St Ives to pounce on the ball and feed out to score  taking  the score to  18 - 16.

This was how it stayed for the next 38 minutes with the play ebbing and flowing, but with neither side able to breach the other sides try line.

Then with two minutes to go, the Bears had a scrum after a St Ives knock-on near the corner, the ball being fed out eventually to  Ben Pyle who crashed over  the whitewash for the deadlock breaking try.

It was to be his last contribution to the game as he was injured in the process. However, Ben who also won the Player-of-the-match award had more than done enough.

Then with St Ives still trying to get back on terms needing a try and a penalty to steal the game from the Bears, their efforts were completely sabotaged when a penalty was given out on the touchline between the 22 metres and the half way line which allowed  Sam Howat to kick an enormous penalty which finally made sure that the Bears had the cup in the bag.

Final Score: March Bears 28 - St Ives II 16.

And the day even got better.

March Bears sent a team of veterans  to the Walking Rugby Tournament at Lowestoft and Yarmouth Rugby Club and to complete a fantastic day for the Bears as they lifted the winners cup there as well.

The winning walking rugby team (Image: Colin Galbraith)