Bury opened their 2022 Suffolk Cup campaign with an ultimately resounding victory over local rivals Ipswich. In a match rearranged to help enable Ipswich to field a full team, both sides enjoyed taking the field under the floodlights with a decent sized crowd in attendance.

A clearly pumped up Bury started the match at a very high pace, pushing forwards at every opportunity and applying pressure at the breakdown. From the first scrum Bury produced a strong drive to win the ball against the head and it looked as if the number eight Ben Hewett had picked up and driven over to open the scoring. However, he was deemed to have been held up and Bury had to go again. The respite lasted all of one minute, as Finlay Blair made the first of many quick sniping runs up the side of the breakdown, before feeding George Howard. He then found captain Vincent La Starza running a lovely line to crash over and score in the right-hand corner.

Ipswich weathered the early Bury pressure well and, after opting to kick at goal when awarded penalties in front of the posts in the 7th and 12th minute, they found themselves with the narrowest of leads. Some impressive passing work from Vincent La Starza and Charlie Chapman helped Bury gain territory and some great tackling from Ben Hewett, Nico Marchini and Harry Wooldridge prevented Ipswich adding to their tally. Marchini then decided to take matters into his own hands with an excellent quickfire hat-trick of tries.

His first try came after scrum-half Finlay Blair (who was in exceptional form all evening) was alert enough to spot the gaps in the Ipswich defence with a quick tap and go before finding George Howard in support. With the full back to beat he timed his pass to Nico Marchini to perfection so he could run in and score. In the 22nd minute a solid Bury scrum created space for George Howard to expertly put a perfectly weighted grubber kick through deep into Ipswich territory – Marchini was on hand to follow through and collect and score. His hat-trick was completed after some good counter-rucking from the home side and James Walshe putting in a long kick and chase. Once again Marchini was running the perfect support line for another Howard offload and beat the remaining three defenders to score under the posts. Howard successfully converted all three scores and in the space of ten minutes the score had gone from 5-6 to 26-6.

There was still time left in the first half for Ipswich to bounce back and score a touchline hugging try to leave the half-time score at 26-13. Bury had dominated long periods of the first 35 minutes, but Ipswich were dangerous on the attack and the late score meant it was all to play for going into the interval.

With the next score so important, it was a relief for the home crowd when Bury started the second half in much the same vein as the first. The ferocious pressure Bury were applying across the park paid off and Ali Evans was on hand to score a great driven try when Vincent La Starza was held up just short. George Howard converted again to extend the lead out to 33-13. In the 9th minute Ipswich fought back well to score, but Evans helped prevent further scores and made some impressive breaks and then Billy Reid put in an exceptional defensive tackle, swiftly getting to his feet to expertly turnover the ball alongside some lovely side-stepping breaks. James Walshe was unlucky not to score when he sprinted clear down the pitch and just failed to collect his own kick through, but with 10 minutes left the game was put beyond doubt when Ben Nevison-Grainger scored after applying great pressure on the Ipswich defence alongside Josh Grigg-Pettitt and Callum Wilson. There was still time for a quick penalty to be passed swiftly from Charlie Chapman to Angus Hudson who was held up just short but had the presence of mind to pop the ball to Callum Wilson to score with the last play of the night.

A final score line of 43-18 suggests a fairly one-sided contest, but Ipswich more than played their part in an entertaining cup game. Bury played well as a team whilst Ipswich had individual players who could breakaway and score – fortunately Bury applied sufficient pressure at the set piece and breakdown to prevent Ipswich from having too much time on the ball and did not really let the away side settle at all. With the Suffolk Cup competed by only three teams this season, and Ipswich having narrowly beaten Colchester in their other match, this result means that the final match (when Bury visit Colchester next month) will be a winner takes all affair. If Bury can continue to show excellent team work and intensity whilst using the strong foundations provided by a committed forward pack they can travel with some degree of confidence. Congratulations to all of the squad on a great performance and well deserved victory.