Rugby Union: Welwyn 15, Bury 22

Nigel Birrell

Welwyn 15, Bury 22

Bury continued their unbeaten run in the league, but produced a poor performance away to the bottom side. Following their magnificent win against the Civil Service, Bury started strongly, and early pressure saw an excellent move in the backs putting Ant Lavea through to open the scoring.

Marius Van Den Berg converted.

Welwyn, playing into the bitter wind, responded well, and a clever chip through to the corner saw their winger collect the bouncing ball and score in the corner to make it 7-5.

Bury continued to dominate, and a scrum near the Welwyn line saw Parkes offload to Van Den Berg, who skipped round the defence to score and then converted.

This seemed to signal the end of the normally disclipined Bury game plan, with domination of possession and territory squandered by poor decision making, selfish use of the ball, all with an air of over confidence. Bury did kick one more penalty to go into the break 17-5.

The second half was evenly matched, with Welywn enjoying more possession and threatening the Bury defence out wide. After 65 minutes Bury scored again, rather against the run of play, Martin Rebdale intercepted a pass at the base of the scrum, five yards out, and crashed over for what would later become a crucial score.

The last 15 minutes saw a spirited fightback by the home team, who fully exploited the poor Bury defence out wide by scoring two more tries in the corner. With the score at 22-15 the home supporters sensed that Welwyn had a sniff of only their second win of the season, but a lacklustre Bury team hung on to win.

It is a sign of the success of this current Bury team that they continued their winning form while playing poorly, whereas last season these games would have been lost.