On a fine and mild November afternoon these two teams served up a cracker of a game to match the previous night’s firework display. Bury started brightly, applying early pressure with some strong possession, however Halstead were first to score despite some great defensive work from Theo Mulhall. Bury charged back onto the offensive and, after a solid scrum, Stephen Woollard was just held up over the line. Bury were not to be denied for long though, as Aleksis Butler stormed over from 20m out, skilfully evading at least five would be tacklers.

Bury continued to apply pressure and even when Halstead tried to clear their lines Tomos Cross and Jack Griggs chased everything, Cross with a superb charge down. Bury stole the subsequent line-out, only for Butler to be held up over the line this time. The home side pressure and territorial advantage continued, supplemented by an incredibly dominant scrummage, and it was no surprise when a lovely break from Ed Fuller found the soft hands of William Paske, who in turn fed a charging Dec Sully to run in from the 22m line. Harry Cardwell slotted the conversion. Halstead fought back well in the last five minutes of the half, adding their second try to leave the score at the interval 12-12.

The second half started in a similar vein to the first period; Bury camped in the opposition half but Halstead always looking dangerous on the break. The afternoon was threatening to become a frustrating one for the home support, with pressure not being converted into points. There was a third attack held up over the line when Mulhall broke through after good work from the impressive Richard Schroeter.

The increasing tension was suddenly broken by three home tries in the space of 10 brilliant minutes. On 63 minutes another strong Bury scrum provided an excellent platform for the effervescent Woollard to pick up from number eight and storm off down the pitch. He setup the irrepressible Nick Tuffs for a great try, Cardwell converting. Five minutes later the impressive Joey Roach scored possibly the best try pitch 4 has seen for some time, proper champagne rugby as the ball was kept alive by some great team handling resulting in the youngster’s first senior try. Cardwell again added the extras. Finally, on 70 minutes, Sully made a great run from halfway, looking to score a try even better than his first. With a covering defender closing in he made the sensible choice to use Tuffs on his inside who gleefully ran through to score after a nice sidestep. Cardwell again expertly added the conversion, to put Bury 33-12 ahead.

There was just enough time left for a well worked consolation try from Halstead, but Bury then closed out an impressive and hard fought 33-19 victory. Head Coach Scott Rannochan was very pleased with the squad’s efforts, saying “It took a while for the backline to start firing, but after a halftime pep talk and a request to speed the game up they (along with strong forwards support) put on some showcase rugby.”

Attention switches to the 4th team next weekend with a home game versus Witham. Congratulations to all involved on a great day for rugby with Bury successfully putting out four senior men’s teams.

Final Score: Bury St Edmunds 33 v 19 Halstead
Man of the Match: Dan Salter