Bury St Edmunds Foxes remain in Women’s Championship Midlands 2 title hunt after win over Kenilworth

Bury St Edmunds Foxes’ head coach Sam Bragoli-Jones felt his side were worthy winners at Kenilworth after they staged a second-half comeback to keep themselves in the title race.

The 22-19 victory on Sunday saw Bury Foxes draw level on points with third-placed Kenilworth and just five points from Women’s Championship Midlands 2 leaders Buckingham Swans with three games to go. Crucially, they will return to action by hosting the current top spot occupiers at the GK IPA Haberden a week on Sunday.

After returning from a three-week break, Bury found themselves 19-5 down at the break at Kenilworth, leaving the Suffolk side’s title hopes hanging in the balance.

But that was to be the last time the hosts put anything on the scoreboard as Bury battled back in a thrilling second period.

“We had a rocky start but once we settled down and secured the ball and started playing to our strengths we turned the game around in the second half to earn a deserved win,” said Bragoli-Jones.

The hosts had a converted try within four minutes of the game getting under way.

However, Bury were quick to reply as a well worked move drew Kenilworth away from play and centre Robyn King threaded her way through the gaps to score her first, unconverted.

Having gone 14-5 down, Robyn Gordon thought she had scored after cruising to the try line, only for the referee to stop play due to incurring cramp during the move.

More injustice was felt when Georgie Palmer dived over a breakdown only to see it ruled out for a penalty in their favour.

When Kenliworth battled their way to another try before half-time, it looked like it was going to be one of those days.

But the Foxes flustered their opponents by upping their aggression in the second half and they made the breakthrough through a strong King run with Robertson converting.

Steph Durrant’s try brought them to within two and the winner came after winning a crucial scrum a minute time, Gordon flying down the wing to score.