Bury St Edmunds 27 Tonbridge Juddians 36: National League 2 East match report

By Adam Hookway

Tonbridge Juddians ended Bury St Edmunds’ unbeaten home record in National League 2 East with one of their best second-half displays of the season, winning 36-27.

Judds went with power and strength up front and played with the slope in the first half, but it was Bury who led with the game’s first try. TJs restarted well, though, and a few phases close to the line enabled Luca Petrozzi to dart over. Tom White converted for a two-point advantage.

The lead was shortlived as the hosts replied with interest - scoring tries on 10, 16 and 26 minutes. TJs were able to peg a score back through Will Holling, but White missed the conversion and they trailed 24-12 at the interval.

With the slope in their favour, Bury started the second half on the front foot but the visitors managed to keep them at bay before imposing themselves both in the pack and the backs. Holling was driven over again on 50 minutes and White added the extras to close the gap to five points.

Three minutes later, with TJs earning a scrum penalty in the home 22, White bobbled a ball over the top and Duncan Tout beat his man to the ball to crash over. White again converted and TJs now led by two.

Three minutes later TJs again mounted extreme pressure on the home line and an impressive switch of play saw White loop and swoop to score in the corner. He converted his own try from the touchline to increase the gap to nine points.

Bury St Edmunds were now finding it difficult to get near the Tonbridge line until a foray in the 70th minute saw them opt for goal and three points as they eyed a final try to steal the spoils, but Juddians were having none of it. Instead it was Judds’ Sam Evans - with a penalty from 40 metres - who claimed the final points