Bury came close to pulling off a dramatic last-gasp victory at table-topping Taunton.

Only determined try line defence prevented them overturning a horror opening 10 minutes and the loss of no less than three people to the sin bin.

Bury conceded twice in the first nine minutes and were struggling to get any possession of note and understandably were guilty of forcing things when they finally did have the ball.

A yellow card to Taunton’s No. 8 Sam Prior for foul play gave Bury an opening and Matt Edison earned a penalty courtesy of scrum-half Ollie Claxton. Chris Lord’s penalty made it 14-3.

Five minutes later and Beau Gibson powered over from close range. Lord converted for Bury, before skipper Josh Walker departed with a nasty-looking injury to his left eye as play became a little fractious.

Bury’s torrid time in the scrum continued though and, after a series of collapsed scrums, the young prop was yellow-carded.

A clumsy knock-on handed Bury the chance to clear but it was not to be as Taunton drove the visitors off their own ball and Kingdom found Mason to score his second try.

Despite being a man down, Bury, via Bixby and Hema, got to within metres of the try line.

Two drives were repelled, but rather than staying patient, they threw the ball wide. The pass was intercepted and Bury headed into half-time trailing 26-10

Bury responded superbly to win the second period 12-0.

At one stage, four times Taunton transgressed close to the line but no yellow card was shown, however they could not stop Lord scoring and converting his own try.

Taunton looked to turn the screw and their cause was helped when Tim Mann was yellow carded for a clumsy tackle.

The Taunton pack pummelled the Bury line but Watson, Gibson and Stapleton tackled as though their lives depended on it.

However, when the latter was also yellow carded for slowing the ball down at a ruck, it looked ominous for 13-man Bury.

Bury had been beaten up at the scrum but would not back down and once again Edison and Davey led the break out.

Lord took the ball on and into the 22, and Bury did stay patient, finding the space for Sean Stapleton to score in the corner.

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