Bury endured a tough afternoon as they went down 46-11 to Old Albanians.

With the sun shining at the impressive Woolams Sports facility, the game promised to be an open flowing affair although in the early stages, both sides were guilty of conceding sloppy penalties.

Bury took the lead through a Oliver Snook penalty but the midpoint of the half saw OA’s take the lead with a pacy attack. The ball was kept alive and a superb off-load by Prop forward Sam Staff sent flanker Ollie Millar in at the corner.

Snook did get Bury briefly ahead again, as he landed a well struck penalty from long range, but 6-5 after 24 minutes was as good as it got for Bury.

The gulf in quality between the sides was evident on occasions.

In attack the home side played with power and precision and in defence their speed off the line, in particular in midfield, stifled any potential Bury attacks.

Having taken the lead courtesy of a well worked cross field kick to winger Marchon, OA’s extended their lead just before the break with a try which typified Bury’s day.

Bury’s star man Beau Gibson managed to turn the ball over in his own 22 to halt another dangerous attack.

But instead of staying patient, creating some space and clearing their lines, the kick was hurried, landed in the arms of Marchon and two passes later saw his left wing compadre Allan diving over. Mallin’s fine conversion sent the home side into the break 19–6 up.

Bury continued to make little errors and against such a composed well drilled side it was pretty much one way traffic for the second half. Two converted scores in the first 10 minutes effectively ended the game as a contest.

To their credit, Bury persevered and scrum half Clement Le Roy caught the home side napping as he scampered down the blind side for a deserved score to make it 36-11.

But Marchon and Mallins added two more scores for OA to complete what was a sobering defeat for the Suffolk squad.