Bury St Edmunds edge close clash at home to Dings Crusaders in rugby encounter

Bury St Edmunds maintained their 100 percent home record but only just after a hard fought match against Dings Crusaders ended 17-10 in favour of The Greene King IPA Haberden team.

Despite spending a significant proportion of the first 40 minutes in the visitors’ half, Bury failed to convert any chances against a strong Dings defence in the National League 2 clash.

After a sustained period of Bury pressure in the 19th minute, a scrum 5m out was looking promising, but the home team were punished for not feeding the ball swiftly enough.

Then, 23 minutes into the game, Dings made their first foray into the Bury 22, only for the home team to clear.

The only score of the first half was a penalty to Dings in front of the posts which was converted by Steve Plummer just before the interval for the teams to go in with 3-0 for the visitors on the board.

The second half started more lively for both teams and, at the 45 minute mark, recent Bury recruit Kodie Drury-Hawkins converted a penalty to even up the score.

The visitors scored next following concerted effort with a driving maul. Its collapse saw Bury penalised for bringing it down illegally and a penalty try was awarded with Bury’s Yasin Browne also sent to the sin bin. The home side evened things up after 62 minutes when they were given a penalty try, after Dings could not defend a dominant scrum 5m out.

With the scores now even at 10-10 it was clear the fixture could go either way. With 12 minutes to go, hooker Dan Walsh burst through the Dings defence to score, with Kodie Drury-Hawkins successful with the conversion.

Bury then held on for the 17-10 win with Tom Milosevic awarded the man of the match.

The side are next away to Redruth, with the team set to travel to their Cornwall opponents on Saturday (2pm). They will be looking to make it four wins in a row in the league.