RugbySudbury 7 Bury St Edmunds 43BURY were first off the mark and within a minute their intentions were clear.Jerry Namadilla ran the perfect line from outside centre cutting a hole through the defence, he found Matt Price in support who crossed the line without opposition.

Rugby

Sudbury 7

Bury St Edmunds 43

BURY were first off the mark and within a minute their intentions were clear.

Jerry Namadilla ran the perfect line from outside centre cutting a hole through the defence, he found Matt Price in support who crossed the line without opposition. Hennie van der Bank slotted the conversion for the extra points.

The home team reacted to this set back in a positive way, and soon the visitors were under pressure. Good defence around the fringe held the Sudbury attackers at bay, eventually the pressure told and with a slight of hand the extra man was found and the line crossed, the conversion was successful and the score lines levelled.

Both sides did their best to keep the large crowd warm. It was real end to end stuff with the ball being moved at pace and both teams happy to attack from all angles.

Bury St Edmunds worked the ball to outside the home 22 and Dave Blackwell received a short pass, showing the defence a clear pair of heels, luckily Nathan Howden was on hand to take the final pass , again van der Bank saw the conversion sail between the posts.

Bury were now beginning to dominate play, but Sudbury in flashes were showing signs of promise.

Bury moved the ball through several sets of hand to one side of the pitch, and in a flash the ball was spun out wide to Dave Shaddick on the opposite wing, who showing great strength and balance crossed for a further 5 points. This brought the half to a close with the score line at 7 - 19.

The second half saw the visitors start to stamp their authority on the game and at times the Sudbury team seemed to be on the brink of being overwhelmed. To their credit they stuck manfully to the task and a great game of rugby was the result, despite the conditions.

Again Bury started to build phases in attack, Howden this time being the recipient of the final pass in front of a yawning gap.

The Bury pack were now totally dominant in the scrum, though Sudbury were disruptive in the lineout. From a scrum on the 22, No 8 Chris Kent picked up from the base, sold the most outrageous of dummies to the final defender and crossed for another try. Hennie van der Bank again slotted the extra points.

Van der Bank had a hand in the next points of the night when after bursting through the defence he fed Brad James to keep up his exceptional try scoring record.

Not to be out done by his fellow backs Oli Gilbert decided it was time for him to trouble the score board. Showing a great fleet of foot he danced through to score close to the posts. Stefan Liebenberg was now given the chance to add the points, bringing the final score line to 7-43.