National League Two South Bury St Edmunds 22 Worthing 36 Bury never recovered from conceding 21 points in the opening 13 minutes to a rampant Worthing side, write Simon Lord.
On the day after Bury parted company with head coach Jon Curry, and on the back of a drubbing at Taunton the previous Saturday, the home side took too long to find their feet and were never going to haul back Worthing.
Bury could not have started more poorly, with Tom Adams, Miller and Basson all crossing to put Worthing up 21-0.
The home side at least had an hour to get back in the game. Mark Kohler almost managed to squeeze over but the ball went forward in the tackle, however Bury had an advantage and were brought back for the penalty. A scrum was taken, the pack drove forward and No 8 Yas Browne picked up and drove over.
The conversion missed, but Bury now enjoyed their best period of the match, capped when Cam Ritchie touched down and converted, making it 21-12 and giving fans hope.
That faded almost immediately as Bury did not gather the kick-off and then stood off the as the visitors ran amok, bursting through tackles to power Henry Birch over and give Worthing a 26-12 lead at the break.
After the break, with one man already in the sin bin, Worthing were reduced to 13 when Birch was shown a yellow card as the Raiders pack wilted at a series of scrums.
Bury continually elected to scrum again from the resulting penalties before shipping the ball out to Kohler to exploit the overlap. The conversion was missed but the score stood at 26-17 on the hour mark.
Once again, as Bury sensed the chance of a comeback, Worthing quickly extinguished that hope.
Scrum-half Ben Holt fielded the 22 drop out and jinked his way back towards the Bury line, allowing John Dawe the chance to win the race to Forrest’s fine kick through to score in the corner.
The same player added another try shortly afterwards, and the game was won. Jordan Coombes added a late consolation for Bury, at least securing a losing bonus point.
- Curry departed as Bury coach on Friday night, due to ‘financial pressures’ on the club’s Pro Am budget. While the club look for a new head coach, Kevin Maggs will take the lead on match days, supported by Andy Herlihy and Craig Burrows.
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