Bury St Edmunds 32 Guernsey 25: Jacob Ford hails character of Wolfpack and challenges them to back it up at Havant

Jacob Ford hailed the character displayed by his Bury St Edmunds players as they staved off a Guernsey second-half fightback to avoid a third straight National League 2 East match turning away from them in the dying minutes.

You could feel the nervous tension engulfing the GK IPA Haberden on Saturday as the Raiders began to claw back their way back from 24-7 down, with Samir Kharbouch’s 48th-minute powerful try, converted by Callum Hall, having secured their bonus point. It came after first-half tries from Will Metcalfe, Alex Earnshaw and Paddy Robinson for a 17-7 interval lead.

But after Kharbouch got himself over, two tries sandwiched between a penalty brought the visitors back to 24-20 heading into the final 15 minutes.

The relief from an unconverted Ruaraidh Williams try following a catch-and-drive move from Hall’s long kick with five to go was short lived with Guernsey quick break seeing Blake Boyland run through to get them back to four adrift.

But Hall, who took over kicking duties from George Loose after Ben Penfold had gone off in the first half with a shoulder injury, stretched it to seven with a long-range central penalty sailing over the posts with a minute to play.

And Bury successfully held out in the dying seconds, overturning possession to spark the celebrations of a result which saw them leapfrog their opponents into eighth place.

“I said beforehand to the boys and upstairs that we had lost 11 games this year, but eight of them have been in the last play and none of them have gone our way,” said director of rugby Ford.

“You saw us concede there with a couple of minutes to go and you're thinking, ‘here we go again’.

“But actually, we found a way to come through it. And having lost Penny with just one back on the bench, we had to reshuffle it and it was great character. We've got to use that as a bit of momentum now.”

Bury head to 12th-placed Havant tomorrow (3pm) with Henley in sixth just five points ahead of them with six to go.

Bury St Edmunds: 15 Hall, 14 Affleck, 13 Loose, 12 Kharbouch, 11 Earnshaw, 10 Penfold, 9 Metclafe, 1 Robinson, 2 McCartney, 3 Mitchell, 4 Harrison, 5 Kelland, 6 Grigg-Pettitt, 7 Guy, 8 Williams.

Replacements: 16 Stone, 17 Donovan, 18 Russell 19 Sams, 20 Rees.

Coaches’ Player of the Match: Calvin Mitchell.

* Sunday sees league-leading Bury St Edmunds Women return to action in the Women's Championship Midlands 2 with the visit of basement side Hitchin to the Greene King IPA Haberden (2pm) to begin their four-game run-in.

Liam Leeson’s side, who were 20-5 winners at Sutton Colfield last time out on February 23, have a six point advantage over second-placed Old Albanian Saints II having played a game more.