Bury under 15s completed their first (and last) match of a strange and heavily truncated season with a fine victory over close rivals Colchester. In a lunchtime kick-off on pitch two at the Haberden the weather did its best impression of early March rather than late May. With the match being played under Covid-adapted rules it meant that no scrums or mauls would be permitted, denying Bury one of their main strengths. It also meant the game would be split into quarters to allow for water breaks and sanitisation. Colchester decided to select an A and a B team, but to their credit Bury stuck to mixed ability line-ups, confident in the belief that players will learn best from each other and thrive in an integrated and non-streamed environment wherever possible.

The first quarter began with Colchester on the front foot, seemingly intent on avenging the Suffolk Cup win for Bury when these two teams last met in March 2020. First Oli Cooper and then Tom Dye stopped certain tries with some great tackling, and Finlay Blair did well to rip the ball away when pressure was mounting. George Howard was marshalling the defence well and providing some relief with long clearance kicks, but after 10 minutes the pressure told and Colchester scored a well-worked try. Colchester continued to play well, but a big tackle from Josh Grigg-Pettitt turned defence into attack and Bury were unlucky not to score as some nice passing moves stretched the away defence. Only some last ditch defending and a slippery ball prevented an equalising score. Colchester added a try in the last minute of the quarter as the Bury defence fumbled the wet ball and this left the score at 0-10.

The second quarter saw Bury storm back into the match, with four tries in ten minutes. In the opening minute Austin Dennis made a lovely run and scored in the right-hand corner. Two minutes later he was making a similarly excellent run before being held up just short of the line. Alert to the possibility, scrum-half Josh Lane sniped around the corner of the ruck and reached out to score a great opportunist try. On six minutes, Toby Coogan made the first of his many strong aggressive runs on the day to touch down. Finally, Harry Wooldridge scored the try of the day after direct running from both Tudor Weyers and Gus Pirt led to Will Hudson picking up the ball on an excellent supporting line. He somehow managed to offload to Wooldridge who was on his shoulder to complete the score. This meant Bury led 20-10 going into the half-time interval.

The third quarter was a high-quality, tight affair, with good play from both sides. Billy Reid and Luke Neal showed their lightning pace in both attack and defence, and Finlay Blair made a superb try saving tackle when Colchester were almost clean through. With not a huge amount between the two teams the quarter ended scoreless, meaning it was still all to play for in the final 20 minutes.

Despite Colchester’s best efforts, Bury took control of the final quarter and did not loosen their grip on the match. In the second minute, a charging run from the returning Ryan Webb found Toby Coogan in support, before he passed to Ben Hewett to drive home for a deserved try which he duly converted. Three minutes later a nice flowing passing move resulted in Nico Marchini crossing for his customary try, again converted by Hewett. Shortly afterwards there was no stopping welcome newcomer Tudor Weyers as he made a strong run to touch down in the corner, leaving the score at 39-10 with ten minutes remaining.

Austin Dennis capped a great all-round performance with his second try after lovely play from Billy Reid and Ben Hewett (Todd Hutchinson converting). Another newcomer, Callum Wilson, also scored a deserved try on his debut, collecting a beautiful off-load from Ben Nevison-Grainger. With the last play of the match Todd Hutchinson found Billy Reid who raced away to score in the right-hand corner and complete the scoring at 56-10 to the home side.

Congratulations to the whole squad for what has been a rather strange and disrupted season. The way the players have stuck at their game and personal fitness is a credit to them all and the commitment shown at training and in this match is first rate. Fingers crossed next season will be back to normal and we can all enjoy more days like this again soon!