Bury St. Edmunds 23 TABARD 26
– London 2 North
A
scintillating break by centre Jack Reilly set up a last minute try for Tabards wing Neil
Hopcroft and brought Tabard victory over Bury
St. Edmunds by 26 points to 23.
The score was
so close to the end of the game that, as
the conversion from stand off Richard Woodard sailed over the final
whistle signified the end of the encounter.
The game
was close all the way
through, with the Bury three-quarters always looking menacing and
the Tabard forwards steadying the game and keeping Tabard in touch. Bury opened the scoring almost immediately when their centre Vuki carved through
the defence and fed fullback Mulama for the try which
stand off Beukes converted. This try
served as a wake up call for Tabard
and thereafter the defence was much more organised but with Tabard trailing
they fought back hard and after a
lot of
pressure hooker Brian Gates was given space to force
himself over the line for Tabards
first try. Tabard
were now in the ascendancy and a good break by second row Brad Montagu put Tabard in the Bury 22 metre area. A penalty to touch and a co-ordinated drive
from the resulting line-out brought Tabard another try, claimed by Montagu and this time Woodard converted to give Tabard the lead by 12 points to seven.
Beukes
then converted a penalty to reduce Tabard’s lead to 2 points and the game then
settled down with
Tabard playing solid rugby and Bury using their fast backs at every opportunity
but finding Tabards defence had no more
weaknesses. Just on half time another
Tabard infringement gave Bury another penalty and the teams turned round with
Bury ahead by 13 points
to 12.
The
closeness of the game continued into the second half until an attack from defence brought
the Bury scrum half a try which Beukes
converted. Tabard quickly replied with
Hopcroft carving through the defence to feed number 8 Scott Stoba
for the try. With Woodard adding the
conversion Tabard were now within one point of Bury. The game now began to swing in favour of Bury and their pressure
was rewarded with another penalty five minutes from time. Then came the final
twist. In fairness Bury had the game sown up
but a good drive on their scrum saw the
scrum reversed in Tabards favour and from this Tabards final and winning, try
came to complete the scoring 26 points to 23 in Tabards favour.
Team: Fleuren, Offredy (Reilly 57m), Thomas, Ashcroft, Hopcroft, Woodard, Karstel, Long, Gates, Davey, Montegu, O’Connor Troyer, Matheson and Stoba.