Joy for the Wolfpack as they return from Old Redcliffians with the victory

On a day in Bristol where four seasons worth of weather was served up, Bury St Edmunds came away with a last gasp win having been behind for the whole match before their 79th-minute winning try.

The match kicked off with Bury playing up the slope against the strong and occasionally gale force wind.

Within two minutes they were 7-0 down, Old Reds having scored from a line-out with the ball making its way to Kieran Hill who danced his way through the Bury defence to dive under the sticks. He then converted his own try. Straight from the restart, ORs received the ball in their 22, but their kick to clear was charged down by Bury 10 Nick Perez who scooped up the ball to score, with the conversion being kicked by Cam Ritchie and honours were even.

After a breathless start to the game, Bury conceding a penalty which was kicked into the corner by their opponents. OR caught and drove, their hooker Kieran Ward peeling off the back of the maul to score converted by their other Kieran (Hill), the score now being 14-7.

Bury continued to creak at scrum time with ORs taking advantage of this by scoring next to make it 21-7.

Bury scored next with a cross field kick by Nick Perez towards the OR five metre line which they took into touch. Bury won the line out and after several phases, Mikey Graham crashed over to score with Ritchie slotting the conversion.

However, another period of OR pressure after half an hour resulted in a penalty try to earn the home side a try bonus point, with Bury’s Andrea Pozzi being yellow carded for ‘repeated infringements’. On came Toby Hill to maintain the Bury front row, with Jordan Coombes who had a notably solid afternoon being sacrificed. Just before half time, Bury’s Cam Ritchie broke down the left pursued by three OR players and despite their attentions managed a beautiful offload which reached Finlay Sharpe who scored under the posts, the subsequent conversion being made by Ritchie. So in both teams went at half time with the score at 28-21.

Bury drew level at 50minutes when OR were penalised for being offside and Mikey Graham scored in the corner, Ritchie converted.

ORs were camped on the Bury line with 20 minutes to go but the visitors did not panic and with their scrum holding fast, they did not concede any points and eventually cleared their lines.

With four minutes to go, Bury conceded a penalty on their 22 and OR fly-half Hill calmly kicked over to give the home side a 31-28 lead.

There was more drama to follow with ORs conceding a penalty for a high tackle which was kicked into their corner. Bury battered the OR line from the line out and their control and patience paid off when the defending side were sucked in to defend, leaving four or five Bury players lined out to the right waiting to score but it was Kohler who dived over under the posts to secure the win, the following conversion being good.

So a hard fought bonus point win against a tough OR side with things to work on but it was a happy bus for Bury on the four hour journey back to Suffolk.