Bury V Clitheroe

Bury faced high flyers Clitheroe last weekend in their first meeting for a couple of years. Clitheroe have had a really good start to their reintroduction to the league and would provide stern opposition. Bury have been stumbling recently and, although, performances have improved of late everyone at the club wants to see that converted into results.
Bury elected to kick off on a day of variable weather and it was the home side who quickly imposed themselves on the game. The rams were looking to play a very territorial game and early exchanges saw a number of kicks into the corner for field position.
The lineout began to function well and provided the home-side with some quick ball. It was the speed of play which saw Bury break the deadlock early in the first half. Scrum half Daniel Palmieri took a quick tap penalty and when he was stopped illegally short of the line the referee awarded a penalty try and a seven point start. Adam Heath extended their lead to ten not long after with an excellent penalty kick.
Clitheroe were not finished though, and some early pressure and a sin bin saw them push the Bury pack over their own line for a score of their own. This brought the score to 10-7.
The Rams hit back almost instantly though, great work down the right hand side by Nick Mabbutt freed up Ed Watkins in the middle. He evaded two tackles to touch down under the posts and restore Bury’s lead.
At the change over Bury were 17-7 up and looking strong. Clitheroe came out all guns blazing and were rewarded shortly after, another score coming from their strong scrum narrowing the gap to 3 points. Heath slotted a penalty in reply to extend the lead to 6.
It was another attempted penalty kick which would result in another try. Following a difficult miss from Heath the drop out landed in Bury hands, they quickly switched the ball and Liam Hampson danced round his opposite number to touch down in the corner.
This was followed by and excellent conversion, and another individual try late on by James Sedman put the polish on a great Rams performance.
Bury travel away to Eagle this week hoping to string some results together again.