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SUFFOLK MERIT LEAGUE, DIVISION ONE: Bury 14 Haverhill 7. Match report.

Matthew 7 verses 24 to 27 talks of the man who builds his house on rock and the one who builds his house on sand, the latter being washed away when the rains came.

Last week, Haverhill’s house, their scrum, was built on the hardest rock that Hadleigh had no answer for. At Bury, hwever, availability meant that the forwards struggled for most of the game in scrum and line, only gaining some parity when an injury to Alex Wong meant that uncontested scrums were the order of the day.

This being said, the large Haverhill crowd were confused as to how Haverhill actually lost this game.

In the first 30 minutes, Bury did not cross into the Haverhill half and Haverhill made two try chances that were squandered and two penalty attempts that should have had them 16 to 20 points ahead.

Bury were guilty of a penalty count in the first half that could only be described as farcical and the fact that only one Bury player had visited the bin in the first half was questioned. The message was: 'Let the referee referee, Haverhill'.

Bury put Haverhill under pressure in the final ten minutes of the half, but the defence was great from Haverhill with Adam Hunt and Simon Potter putting in some great work.

In the final play of the half, Hunt achieved a great charge down of a Bury 22-metre clearance that just bobbled as it went to hand for the knock-on. If this had gone differently, a Haverhill try was a certainty, but the score was 0-0 at the whistle.

On the restart, Haverhill won another penalty and the Mark Jury kick was just short and right of the post. Three Haverhill men ran after the ball and just stopped when the Bury centre caught it, instead of hitting him hard, missing another opportunity to score.

On 50 minutes there then followed two minutes that defined the game. Bury had a line-out from a penalty on the 22-metre line, which they won. Three missed tackles later, the fly half was under the posts for 7-0.

On 52 minutes, a first team half-time replacement playing inside centre picked up the ball and ran from half way, jinking through the defence and under the posts for 14-0.

At this stage, uncontested scrums were now in place and Haverhill got back the control of the game.

On 60 minutes, skipper Hope was binned for a misdemeanour, but Haverhill still continued to attack.

Five minutes later the Bury number eight, who had been 'in the mix' for most of the game finally got caught delivering a right hook in the tackle and rightly got a straight red, evening up the contest and allowing for a great move to be flamboyantly finished off by Hunt and converted by him for 14-7.

With the final ten minutes being played one man up, it was hoped that Haverhill would finish off the game, but indiscipline with back chat continually allowed the referee to reverse Haverhill ball and for Bury to hang on to the final whistle.

A frustrating day at the office.