Rams 47 Bury St Edmunds 21

Bury were soundly beaten at title favourites Rams in Reading on Saturday, writes Simon Lord.

The hosts had surprisingly slipped up in the mud of St Albans the previous week and Bury felt the full backlash of that as they encountered a fired up home side. Bury welcomed back Scholes, Kohler and Leng to the side but were missing the injured Ritchie, Browne and skipper Watson.

For most of the first half Bury matched the Rams and in fact had the brighter of the starts! A penalty on half way was kicked to the 25m line, the forwards nudged on a further 10m before Leng and then Uri drove hard into midfield crating the space for Alex Stanley to dive over.

Rams edged ahead when Bury, having enjoyed a promising spell, fumbled the ball and two passes later Jak Rossiter was racing away. The winger was caught but Duffelen was up in good support and he ran in by the posts.

With their noses in front, the Rams began to ooze confidence. They began to attack at real pace, flooding players through in support and cleverly off-loading the ball out of contact on numerous occasions.

Bury were stretched but they were hanging on and the scramble defence was good.

Just before the half hour they got back on terms, Alex Stanley galloping in 20m for a cracking try. Perez’s fine touchline conversion put Bury back ahead 12-14.

But he second period was a humbling experience for Bury as the Rams turned on the pressure in the set piece and the Wolfpack had no answer.

The home side went to the tried and tested method of attack.

Pressure the opposition into conceding a scrum, earn a penalty, kick to the corner, power your way over.

Except that for the first try of the half it did not end like that! The first three parts were correct, but as Bury held firm on their line, Seers elected to kick cross field for Rossiter, who somehow mid air, managed to get the ball down before Sharp bundled him into touch.

The lead now 12 points, the hosts began to turn the screw eventually running out comfortable victors.