Bury St Edmunds squeeze single point win in eight try thriller
League Points 5-2
Bury St Edmund 29: Tries: Tanner Lightfoot (9), Alex Grey (17, 30, 46); Conversions: Kodie Drury-Hawkins (10, 18, 47); Penalties: Kodie Drury-Hawkins (67);
Leicester Lions 28: Tries: Jay Hare (14), Ollie Tapscott (24), Jack Dickinson (65), Will Hooper (72); Conversions: Ben Young (25); Penalties: Ben Young (33, 36);
Lions had their first visit to Bury St Edmunds, at The Haberden, Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk.
The game started with well balanced play, with Bury St Edmunds first to score with a try by Tanner Lightfoot, with Kodie Drury-Hawkins adding the conversion.
Jay Hare soon brought Lions back into the game with flying winger’s try to bring the score to 7-5.
Bury St Edmunds came back quickly to re-establish their lead with the first of a hat-trick of tries by Alex Grey bustling over, with Drury-Hawkins again adding the extras.
On 24 mins Lions came back again with their captain, Ollie Tapscott, driving over for a try, with Ben Young adding the conversion and closing the score to 14-12.
It was not long before Grey added his second try for Bury St Edmunds, against driving over from close to the line and opening the score up to 19-12.
Lions put Bury St Edmunds under pressure which led to two penalties scored by Young to close the half-time score to 19-18, leaving the game finely balanced for an anticipated exciting second half.
Half Time: Bury St Edmunds 19 Leicester Lions 18
Early in the second half Grey added his hat-trick try, with Drury-Hawkins adding the conversion to re-open Bury St Edmunds lead to 26-18.
On 56 mins Matt Bursey (Bury St Edmunds) and James Stubbs (Leicester Lions) were both yellow carded.
With some twenty minutes to go, Lions’ Jack Dickinson went over for a try in a forwards’ power play to close the score to 26-23.
On 67 mins Lions’ Devon Constant was yellow carded. Following this Drury-Hawkins added a penalty for Bury St Edmunds to give them a little more leeway with a 29-23 lead.
Again Lions showed their commitment putting Bury St Edmunds under pressure with Will Hooper going over in the corner. Unfortunately for Lions the conversion attempt drifted past the post and Bury St Edmunds maintained their lead at 29-28.
Bury St Edmunds managed to control possession for much of the remainder of the game to keep their hands on the 29-28 victory.
Full Time: Bury St Edmunds 29 Leicester Lions 28
This was a fairly well balanced contest, with Bury St Edmunds just about deserving the victory, but Lions showing skill and commitment, so the victory was not ensured until the final whistle. There was some excellent flowing rugby by both sides with four tries apiece.
Following the game Lions were in sixth place National League 2 South and Bury St Edmunds were in eighth position.
Lions’ head coach, Gareth Collins, said, “This was a fairly well balanced game throughout, with it never being obvious who would win until the final whistle. I felt that Lions played in an excellent committed and skilful manner and were always snapping at Bury St Edmunds heels”.
Next week, on Saturday 15th February 2020, Lions are home to Redruth, from Cornwall, at Westleigh Park, Blaby.
Teams – Order 15-9, 1-8, 16-20
Bury St Edmunds: Will Affleck, Michael Stanway, Greg White, Ben Leng, Tanner Lightfoot, Kodie Drury-Hawkins, Sebastiano Dusi, Patrick Robinson, Robert Gardner, Ben Cooper, Alessandro Leo, Alex Grey, Matt Bursey, Tomas Milosevic, Oliver Watson
Replacements: Tom Brown, Georgi Gidionov, Toby Hill, George Grigg-Pettitt, Alfie Garside
Leicester Lions: Max Johnson, Jay Hare, Jamel Hamilton, Harry Glynn, Devon Constant, Ben Young, James Stubbs, Rhod McNaughton, Jack Dickinson, Shaun Murray, Ollie Tapscott, Will Ward, Toby Hutchinson, Jonny Murdoch, Nick Cairns
Replacements: Will Roberts, Charlie Loveday, George Taylor-Walker, Will Hooper, Alex Smit
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