National League Two South London Irish Wild Geese 29 Bury St Edmunds 50 The Wolfpack put in their finest performance for many a moon with a scintillating seven try victory, writes Simon Lord.
Bury were straight out of the blocks. Sam Bixby ought to have opened their account on three minutes when he was up in good support of Yas Brown, only to fail to get the ball down as he crossed the line. However from the resulting five-metre scrum, Jake Ashby darted over to cap a bright start for Bury.
The Geese responded well, Owens going over to score. But Bury roared back, as Bixby drove through a line-out and Dave Coutts was able to power his way over from close range from the resulting ruck.
Irish once again showed just how dangerous they can be when Bury handed the ball over with a careless pass and seconds later Meeson was scoring in the corner.
If that wasn’t warning enough, from the restart Bury did not get organised in defence and swift hands exposed a dog leg and Hodgkinson touched down.
There was no let up in the frenetic nature of the match and it was Bury who led 19-17 at the interval after Bixby finally got the try he deserved.
For the next half hour Bury were in total control, playing some of their finest rugby of the season.
Tristan King, who had arguably his best game for Bury, seized on a turnover to carry the ball deep into Irish territory. Bury stayed patient, recycling well to create the space for Mark Kohler to ghost in after just two minutes.
Then Coutts went over again, and Bury were 33-17 to the good. King was next to cross and the game was lost for the Irish.
There was no let up from Bury though as Kohler had too much pace to be stopped and whilst he could have added to his personal tally, he unselfishly passed to the supporting Salva Lloret for his first score for the club.
The home side managed to score two in the dying minutes, both wide on the right as their swift counter attacks were rewarded.
However it was never going to threaten Bury’s well deserved lead and Harrison’s confident penalty in the dying embers brought the half century up for Bury and a job more than well done.
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