TOC H...35 BURY RUFC...13: FOR Bury to achieve any level of success in this season's campaign there are certain pivotal matches - this was one.

Having met Toc H both in a pre-season friendly and also in the first half of the league programme, both players and spectators knew what they could expect from the opposition.

The home side were to open their account after only three minutes with the left wing scoring in the corner, well converted by their stand-off. Bury replied in the eighth minute with a penalty from Glynn Smith when Toc H were caught handling on the floor.

Bury were offered opportunities in the 20th and 22nd minute of the half with penalties from 38 and 42 metres, both sliding narrowly wide.

The barrage of points scored by the home side in the next 12 minutes of the match really sealed the fate of Bury even before the interval.

Without going into a blow by blow detail of how it was achieved suffice it to say the home team were to score three converted tries. Bury's only realistic chance of scoring was when from a set scrum flanker Robinson caught the Toc H stand-off in possession six metres out, as the ball bobbled free to ground but with no body backing up, a certain try went begging.

Coach John Hargreaves had some harsh words to say during the interval, and had made the decision, quite rightly that if Bury were going to salvage anything from the match now some 25 points in arrears, it could only be done in the forwards, and only supplying the ball to the three-quarters when they had run out off options.

Bury's first try came 10 minutes after the restart when following a raking line kick by Smith, and the home side making a mess of the line-out, after a succession of scrums the ball was moved down at the short side and left wing Mark Fielding was able to squeeze in at a corner, Smith narrowly missing the conversion.

Bury now pressured the Toc H set scrum to such a degree, that it was immaterial who put the ball in, Bury striking cleanly on their own head, and driving the Toc H scrum back on their put-in. However 15 minutes of pressure was not to yield a score to Bury.

Two excellent chances went begging, the referee preparing to award a penalty try, changed his mind following some comment from a Bury forward resulting in a reversal of his decision, and awarding Toc H a penalty kick. Nick Smithson having moved from lock to number 8, picked up from the tail of the scrum and crossed the line, but ball was held up by the opposition.

The home side only made three incursions into the Bury 22 in the second half, having been denied possession, however one of these was to result in a try in the left corner, converted from wide out. With some seven minutes to go, again as a result of the forwards, Bury found themselves ten metres from the line and in front of the posts.

They drove the set scrum back and as the ball squirted out of the side of the rapidly retreating scrum, Glynn Smith pounced and dived over for the try, with a touch of bravado his conversion attempt was a drop kick, it missed, and the game was now beyond recall, so no damage done.

The conclusions to be drawn from this match are quite simple, excepting the performance of the three-quarter line against Eccles when the tackling was exemplary, Bury this season in the absence of a co-ordinated and simplified method of attacking in the three-quarter line, must revert to essentially nine man rugby.

The pack in general terms is playing well, and probably has the beating of any in their league, but individual areas require attention.

The line-out is still a lottery, although prop-forwards Ian Marshall and Mike Holland are making dramatic improvements to their technical game, but neither hits their weight in the loose, captain John Westwood probably weighing four stone less makes more inroads on the offence.

TEAM: Holland Kelly Marshall Laughton Smithson Westwood (c) McDermott Robinson Smith Livesey McGarraghy Elliott Chester Fielding McDougal.