Bury St Edmunds 76 Guernsey 26

Bury ran in 12 tries against a hapless Guernsey side on their way to a bit victory.

Had Cam Ritchie had his kicking boots on it would have been much worse for the Islanders, as it was, they did have the consolation of taking a bonus point home with them.

Few in the watching crowd could have predicted how events would unfold after Bury conceded a try after just 60 seconds. The kick off was knocked on, a player in front of the ball then picked it up, a penalty was conceded and moments later hooker Tom Ceillam was being driven over the line by the Guernsey pack.

The response however was instant. Bury’s pace and angles of running would cause a makeshift Guernsey back line problems all day.

After recycling the ball several times, Ritchie drew two defenders towards him before sending Ben Leng racing through for the score.

On a glorious sunny day, the visitors were hit with a whirlwind and in the next 15 minutes had conceded four more tries.

On two occasions the defence were cut to ribbons, Kohler and Ritchie causing havoc to supply tries for Sharpe and Wiltshire.

It was all going wrong for the Sarnians, summed up by a re start not going 10m and them having to once again defend for their lives.

Their only route back into the game was to rely on their large forward pack.

A penalty for midfield offside was kicked to 25metres and there then followed a series of driving mauls that finally resulted in Lewis Hillier been driven over. Gow’s conversion brought the score to 29-12 after 30 minutes and Bury continued to add to the score, 41-12 up at the break.

The pace of the game had slowed down in the second period, the crowd had gone quiet..

Bury finally upped their intensity and once again pressurised Guernsey into mistakes. Wilthsire got two more tries.

The Bury forwards continued to give plentiful supply to the three quarters and the backs ran riot. None more so than Mark Kohler, he was having a field day in breaking the line and his charge and then sublime angled kick was perfect for the calling Sharpe to run in for arguably the try of the day as the home side ran out comfortable victors.

Bury moved up to third in National League Two and are at home again next weekend, to Barnes, when they will hope to keep their good form going.