Osgood the centre of attention in gritty win
Tonbridge………26pts
Bury St Ed's……. 17pts
TEAMS
TONBRIDGE: Packman, Lucas, Osgood, Tout, Kendrick, Evans, Petrozzi, Boon, Holling, Whitmarsh, Munnelly, Parker, Reid, Nicoll, Koomson
Replacements: Mutch, Conlon, Hayes, Parkes, Beaumont
BURY ST ED'S: Drury-Hawkins, Affleck, Brown, Loose, Simpson, Penfold, Hall, Robinson, Bourne, Cooper, Grigg-Pettitt, Kelland, Willians, Brusey, Porteous
Replacements: Kingdon, Spriddell, Russell, Meyers, Saddleton
REFEREE: Alex Rose
ATTENDANCE: 247
Star man
Will Holling -TJs
A PHYSICAL encounter saw TJs emerge victorious courtesy of two Shadyn Osgood tries, the trusty boot of fly half Sam Evans and a hard-working and hungry defensive display.
TJs shuffled the pack and handed debuts to three players, including home-grown Academy products Ben Mutch and Luke Beaumont, both of whom won the National Cup with their hometown club in 2015 and 2023 respectively.
It was the visitors who were on the board first, a penalty converted by Ben Penfold after just three minutes.
But TJs responded with two successful threepoint attempts of their own from the ever-trusty left foot of Evans.
As the first quarter drew to a close TJs produced a powerful and accurate set of phases from an attacking line-out that produced a significant overlap, allowing centre Osgood to glide over for the first of his brace of tries.
Evans missed the extras and Bury closed to within a point courtesy of a Brayden Porteous try and Penfold conver- sion. The remaining minutes of the first period saw Bury pressure, but some outstanding TJs defence comfortably kept them out.
Ten minutes into the second half Bury regained the lead for the first time since the opening minutes when centre George Loose smashed over and Penfold converted,
But it was to be short lived for the East Anglian outfit. Just two minutes after the restart, another flowing TJs attack started with a powerful carry from Number 8 Kwabena Koomson and ended with the same player's offload which eventually freed the excellent Howard Packman to dummy and score.
Although Evans' missed conversion left the west Kent side a point behind, it was only a three-minute wait until Osgood crashed over from a routine scrum move, breaking two tackles to score and regain the lead.
Evans added the extras and another penalty with five minutes to play to stretch TJs lead beyond striking distance and secure an important win as things start to take shape at the top of the table.
TJs head coach Seb Sherwood said: ‘That was a gritty win that we ground out well, especially with the changes we made.
“But full credit to Bury who came to throw the ball around and made things difficult for us.
“But the lads really stepped up, particularly defensively, and the vociferous home support certainly helped us across the line.
“It was a good display of strength in depth, and I was delighted.”
