Bury played the first half in to the wind. Cambridge started strongly pinning Bury back in their own half as we resolutely defended. There were some big hits and great chop tackles as Cambridge tried to use their forward power to break down. The pressure eventually told with a kick charged down close to our line and Cambridge being first to dive on the ball. We quickly struck back as we brought some real power to our rucking game, and started to move the ball through the centres with Rhys PJ eventually powering through to carve Cambridge open, with Stu converting.

We kept the pressure on with Rhys PJ and Lucas doing some great work in the centre before we moved the ball wide and Alex beat his man and the covering defence to take us further in the lead. More Bury pressure saw a penalty awarded in the Cambridge 22 and quick thinking by Ryan saw him take a quick penalty and score a clever try.

Cambridge managed to pull a try back on the stroke of half time but we went in deservedly leading at half time 12-17

After the break Cambridge withstood some early Bury pressure which seemed to give them some confidence. We lost our dominance at the ruck and their big runners started to make real ground. They managed to break through three times, one of their tries being an absolute scorcher down the wing, as we struggled to get on the front foot. Rhys Jones dislocated his shoulder after a brave tackle but fortunately is not in too bad shape. We rallied at the end with Will Spark catching a loose Cambridge kick and nearly scoring before Scott scored from the base of a scrum 5 metres from the Cambridge line with Stu converting.

Overall there were a lot of positives to take from the game. We lost our way for 15 minutes in the second half, but otherwise seemed to be in control for much of the first half. We need to maintain the intensity of the rucking we saw in the first half, and exploit the space out wide as we did for parts of the game. It was a good game and very well reffed. Thank you to Cambridge for hosting.