The Bulls 2nds were left with hard task before a ball had been kicked when the very “make-shift” side were playing with only 14 players from the start.
The first quarter of this encounter was mainly played within the middle of the pitch, with neither team making the break through. St Ives came closest when after a series of penalties, St Ives forced a line out deep in the Bury 22.
15 mins in and Rob Olivier put in two jackals to prevent the Bury onslaught. Then Ed Mortimer won the foot race to place the ball down ahead of a chasing player to give St. Ives a goal line drop-out, and a breather.
St. Ives held well in defence despite Bury having the extra player, and it was only after two thwarted rucks on the Bulls line, did the Bury no. 9 push the ball out to their back line, who made use of the overlap to score.
Soon after Bury doubled the score, when a fly hack through caught St Ives off-guard and with no full back, the Bury winger sprinted through to score. With the kick converted 12 – 5.
On 35 mins, St Ives managed to get themselves into the Bury 22, with a scrum out wide. Lewis Olivier took the ball on the narrow side only to be held up in the tackle. The Bulls kept the pressure on through phase play created by the forwards and Jack Hickman on the crash ball from centre, put the Bulls on the Bury try line. After a couple of attempts to drive through for the score Tom Mellor dived in for the try. With resulting kick charged down the score was 12 – 5 , and all to play for.
Then just before half time a mad few minutes saw Bury run in two quick converted tries, to leave a half-time score of 26 – 5.
The second half saw some prolonged pressure by Bury. Eventually a desperate clearance kick by St Ives saw the kick not make touch, and from the resulting pick-up by their winger who put a huge pass in midfield to move the ball right to left , saw the opposite winger score under the posts. An easy kick saw the score move to 33 – 5.
Another converted try to Bury followed straight from the kick-off, as the opposition made use of the St Ives team not having a full back. 40 – 5.
St Ives never gave up and still pressed the Bury defence, and from a scrum on halfway St Ives tried to move the ball wide through the backs, however a knock-on saw Bury make the most of the fumbled ball to score again under the posts. Surprisingly the easiest kick of the day was missed, so score was 45 – 5.
With Bury looking to put the 50 points on St. Ives, they continued moving the ball through their back-line and what looked like an easy run in for them from the halfway line , was prevented by the tackle of the day from Jack Hickman. That seemed to lift the Bulls spirit , and with a series of penalties awarded to St. Ives they decided to pile drive forward and back into the Bury 22.
From a ruck St Ives put the ball through hands which allowed Tim Edwards to score on his debut for the team. With the conversion missed, score 45-10. From the scoring backs move Ed Mortimer limped off, which meant the Bulls were just 13 strong.
The do or die attitude continued into the last few minutes of the game, but this couldn’t prevent Bury scoring once more with a converted try.
Final score 52-10 , where the score did not reflect the spirited effort put in by the players making the trip to Bury St. Edmunds.
Skipper Josh Taylor, said, “The score does not reflect the effort shown by every player on the pitch. I was extremely proud to captain the side today, everyone put a shift in that they should be proud of their performance.
Dick of the day was an easy pick today and goes to Tommy b for turning up after the game had finished.
Man of the match was a much harder one to call and could have easily gone to anyone but Ed Mortimer wins it this time with some try saving tackles and holding a couple of their boys up over the line.”