Bury St Ed's……. 19pts Westcombe P…14pts
RELIEVED Bury St Edmunds ended a run of seven defeats by g rinding out a win against an emerging opponent.
But their visitors will perhaps not be satisfied with just one point on this visit to West Suffolk and will take a close look at some system failures.
Bury showed their running intent early on, with captain Bursey running a quickly-taken penalty.
They sought to play their trademark expansive style and Park used their large powerful forwards to bludgeon their way through the Wolf defence.
It was Bury who opened the scoring through star man Ben Cooper. A line-out deep in the Park 22 went off the top, and Cooper sprinted over from five metres, but the conversion was missed.
As Park sought to gain some momentum, Bury succumbed to their obligatory yellow card, but the visitors couldn't make the numerical advantage count.
In fact, it was Bury who scored with a man down, with Levi Roper crossing after a good series of play from a line-out, with Ben Penfold converting to make it 12-0.
TEAMS
BURY ST ED'S: Drury-Hawkins, Affleck, Loose, Roper, Simpson, Penfold, Gelderbloom, Robinson, McCartney, Cooper, Russell, Kelland, Bourne, Grigg-Pettitt, Bursey Replacements: Jeffery, Wells, Stanway, Christie, Barker WESTCOMBE PARK: Wallace, Thompson, Shergold, Braithwaite, Ratcliff, Harrison, Fryatt, Bailey, Wagstaff, Roofe, Smith, Kenny, Lofinmakin-Dutta, Hudson, Chawner Replacements: Harris, Murphy-Woolridge, Cook, McPherson, Rhodes with George Grigg-Pettitt forcing his way over following a number of close phases. Penfold converted to make it 19-0 at the break.
Bury opted for a scrum from another penalty close to Park's tryline, Park restarted a half of rugby that many would want to forget, a half of soft penalties, knock-ons, forward passes, turnovers and generally very scrappy play.
Any time any of the teams seemed to be getting somewhere, an error brought proceedings to an abrupt and very frustrating halt.
A scrum on Bury's five metre line saw a Bursey break take play into the Park 22, but a handling error gave Daniel Shergold an opportunity to break, evading some weak defence to race away and score Park's first try, converted by Toby Wallace.
Bury looked to bounce straight back, and a superb break by replacement prop Lewis Jeffery
should have resulted in a try but, again, a handling error spurned the chance.
In desperation, Bury spread the ball about at great speed but all too often laterally, flat and without penetration. They were also guilty of wasting opportunities, twice good catch and drive situations were lost as a result of poor execution.
Park scored a second try following a bizarre period of play.
Bury kicked a penalty deep into Park's 22, this was turned over and an ensuing penalty gave Park a line-out throw in their 22. The throw went short and Nicholas Cook sped away, kicked ahead and gathered to score, with Wallace converting to set up a nerve-jangling last few minutes.
REFEREE: Alex Pownall
ATTENDANCE: 393
Star man Ben Cooper -Bury St Edmunds
