Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club return home with five points in windy conditions
The Wolfpack collected a four-try bonus point from the relatively short journey to south west London as they beat Sutton & Epsom 36-12 in the National League 2 South.
Storm Dennis held off just long enough for the fixture to go ahead, even though the pitch was heavy and 50 mph winds made kicking difficult.
But Bury got off to a dream start with winger Ciaran Leeson darting over in the corner following a period of pressure on the host's line. Kodie Drury-Hawkins was just wide with the conversion in the gale force wind.
Bury kept the pressure on the home side and from a beautifully flighted low kick from full back Chris Lord into the Sutton corner to force a five metre attacking lineout.
Hooker Dan Walsh threw to Tom Brown at the front, who dived over unopposed for the try. Drury-Hawkins valiant effort was just wide.
Sutton & Epsom responded after 22 minutes to make it 10-5 to Bury.
Four minutes later, Mike Stanway raced over in the right corner following a dominant Bury scrum to make it 15-5, the conversion wide.
Bury continued to apply the pressure and, after 29 minutes, Sutton outside centre James Bourton was sent to the sin bin for tackling Stanway without the ball in an attacking position.
Bury opted to scrum and, after several phases, Georgi Gidionov who had just come on for Ben Cooper, crashed over from two metres to score on his debut – while securing the bonus point for the visitors. Drury-Hawkins converted to leave Bury 22-5 up at the break.
Gidionov scrummaged well, but was shown a yellow card just before half-time.
Both teams had an ‘old fashioned’ five minute turn around, sheltered in the lee of the stand.
The second half started with the home team applying pressure, but the back row combination of Tom Milosevic, Tom Brown and Yasin Browne tackled like demons to hold them at bay.
Bury scored their fifth try with centre Ben Leng weaving through the Sutton defence beating several defenders to score under the posts, Kodie converting.
Bury captain Milosevic was sin binned for a high tackle after 58 minutes. Sutton responded after 65 minutes with second row Matt Harwood breaking tackles and running powerfully, crashing through the Bury defence to score a converted try.
Bury scored their sixth and final try through Tommy Waldock having laid siege to the Sutton line, with Drury-Hawkins slotting the conversion for the 36-12 scoreline.
Bury rose to seventh in the standings ahead of the away fixture on Saturday (2.30pm) of back-to-back matches against Old Redcliffians.
