Bury St Ed’s……36
Colchester…….22
BURY St Edmunds secured victory over Colchester in a closely contested Suffolk derby.
But Bury claimed the bonus-point win, despite some disjointed and stuttering play at times.
Henri Lavin opened the scoring for Bury with a try in the sixth minute, followed by Will Metcalfe’s first try eight minutes later.
Mat Riddington added the conversion to put Bury 12-0 ahead.
Colchester’s Corey Button responded with a penalty in the 24th minute, leaving the half-time score at 12-3 in Bury’s favour.
The second half saw Bury extend their lead with Metcalfe’s second try, converted by Riddington.
TEAMS
BURY ST ED’S: Shortfall, Rees, Loose, Kharbouch, Affleck, Riddington, Metcalfe, Carmichael-Fraser, McCartney, Cooper, Kelland, Harrison, Lavin, Grigg-Pettitt, Williams Replacements: Stone, Robinson, Sams, Guy, McPhun COLCHESTER: Varela, Stanway, Bodkin, Lloyd, Taylor, Button, Creighton, Jeffery, Rossouw, Jeffery, Daniel, Friend, Pickett, Whiteman, Tabuatamata Replacements: Turner, Colcomb, O’Neil, Kerr, Parry
REFEREE: Simon Waite ATTENDANCE: 875
Star player
Corey Button -Colchester
Will Affleck then scored Bury’s fourth try, again converted by Riddington, to take the score out to 26-3.
But Colchester fought back exceptionally well with tries from Colcombe and Jacob Bodkin, both converted by Button, to narrow the gap to 26-15.
Samir Kharbouch scored Bury’s fifth try, but Colchester’s Francois Rossouw, assisted by Bodkin, responded with another converted try.
In the final minutes, Euan Rees sealed Bury’s victory with a try, bringing the final score to 36-22, as well as a massive sigh of collective relief.