Bury started the new year with a good away win against a committed North Walsham side.

The game was played in near perfect conditions with Bury starting the stronger of the two sides. The pack showed real determination at the breakdown making good ground with our ‘pick and go’ game. Following good early pressure upfront Lucas managed to collect a cross field kick superbly and crossed the whitewash in the corner to give Bury the lead. More Bury pressure saw North Walsham putting in a strong defensive effort before some good work saw Archie break through the line and score, with Stu adding the conversion. After some ill-discipline at the ruck by Bury, North Walsham were able to kick to close to our try line and forced their way over from the maul to bring the score back to 5-12.

Bury responded with some strong running from Bully, Lucas and Charlie from deep, and with a superb effort up front making sure we were first to the rucks and clearing out those rucks aggressively. Josh W and big Jack kept punching holes in the Walsham defence and the back row of Ryan, James and Noah were tireless in getting to the rucks first after every half break. Eventually after good work from the forwards close to the Walsham line the ball was spun out and Bully was able to cross with Stu converting. Another flowing move shortly afterwards saw Bully find space in the defence to cross for his second try which was converted to make the half time score 5-26.

The second half saw Walsham come back strongly, scoring two quick tries, the first after a good cross field kick. We gradually began to assert ourselves and won a penalty just outside the Walsham 22 which Stu kicked to make it 15-29. Walsham scored again to make it 20-29 but after that score we dominated the last 10 minutes, being camped in their half for long periods. Walsham were reduced to 14 men after a swinging arm clothes-lined Adam HH. We thought we had scored when Adam HH dived over the line but the ref didn’t see the grounding so we were left with only a 5m scrum. There was a frenetic end to the game with Bury working really hard to find the last score and coming close through Alex and then Rhys PJ, but Walsham bravely defended their line.

Overall this was a really pleasing squad performance with everyone getting stuck in and making a good contribution, and with the bonus of there being no injuries beyond a few bumps and bruises. We had to work very hard for the win which should give the lads plenty of confidence going in to the county cup fixture next weekend. Thank you to Walsham for hosting us, and good luck to them in the cup and for the rest of the season. Kit was voted man of the match.