Rugby Union: Bury St Edmunds 45, Ruislip

Rugby Union: Bury St Edmunds 45, Ruislip 23

Bury produced arguably their finest performance of the season to comprehensively defeat a team only one place below them in the league.

But they must now face a trip to league leaders Staines on Saturday without three key players who are injured.

Bury are still to taste defeat at the Haberden this season, and the large crowd enjoyed a quality performance, with the backs running amok with their pace and power.

Bury started strongly, with good pressure leading to Dave Blackwell driving over. An unsighted referee refused the try, but the resulting penalty was kicked by Marius Van Den Berg to open the scoring.

Bury continued to threaten, and on 15 minutes a flat pass from Tom Chennel to Van Den Berg saw him carve through the midfield and make 40 metres before being held up on the line. Excellent support play from Stuart Turner and Martin Rebdale saw the ball recycled to Corrie Beukies who skipped over the line to extend the lead. The Bury pack continued to produce quick ball, with Morgan Cross and Brad James excelling, and multiple phases of play saw Cross over in the corner to give Bury a 13-0 lead after only 20 minutes.

Ruislip then started to come into the match, their large pack producing some good phases of play that saw then reduce the deficit with a try in the corner. They added to this soon after, to reduce the deficit to 13-8.

Bury responded with a penalty, and then Beukies produced a fine break in midfield, passed to Andy Heriot who fed the flying Mike Ward to cross in the corner to give Bury a 21-8 lead at the break.

The second half saw an exchange of penalties, and the visitors coming back strongly at Bury, and outstanding defence from Ben Geatches and Captain Tim Youngs saw Ruislip suffer two interception tries, by Beukies and Ward, that effectively sealed the game for the home team. Ruislip did respond with two late scores, but the game belonged to the home team. Injuries to Youngs, Beukies and PD Terblanche took the gloss off this fine performance and with a trip to league leaders Staines at the weekend Bury will rue the loss of these key players.