Bury St Edmunds returned the 375 miles from deepest Cornwall with a feeling of three points lost rather than one point gained following a 12-9 defeat to Redruth in National 2.

It is a mark of how far this side has come since the start of the season that they left a rain-soaked ‘Hellfire’ frustrated at what might have been.

After weathering an early onslaught, Bury took the lead when Liam McBride landed a penalty kick from straight in front of the posts.

Redruth forwards then got in the ascendancy. A lineout functioned and a disorganised Wolfpack were unable to prevent former player Loma Kivalu being driven over from five metres. Soon afterwards home flanker Chris Fuca was given enough space to squeeze over and Nielson Webber converted for 12-3.

The closing 10 minutes of the half saw a real shift in the balance of power. David Coutts and Collen Smith were dominating the scrummage, while Harry Anderson Brown and Sean Stapleton were getting through countless tackles, rucks and drives.

Dwayne Corcoran and Alex Stanley were both held up on the line, then McBride landed his second penalty to make the score 12-6 at the break.

The Wolfpack went on to dominate the second half but couldn’t turn pressure into points. A fantastic driving maul was illegally halted and McBride’s kick slid wide. A little knock-on brought another promising attack to an end. Fraser Honey sent Mark Kohler racing away, but the final pass to Corcoran didn’t go to hand.

Honey did narrow the gap when a stretched defence infringed again. Moments later, Honey’s crossfield kick did not bounce kindly for Chris Lord.

Stapleton’s fine game ended early when he was sent to the bin for an illegal tackle. Stanley stole a lineout and set Bury off on a counter that seemed destined to grab an equalising score if not more, but an isolated Bury player was penalised for not releasing.

The referee then controversially blew signalled time was up with most people’s watches still showing 38 minutes played.

The challenges don’t get any easier as Bury host high-scoring league-leaders Taunton at The Haberden this Saturday.