De La Salle sorted

BURY visited the Lancaster Road home of De La Salle secure in the knowledge that the game would be played with no quarter asked or given.

It is a sad condemnation of the sport that in what is by nature a body contact sport there still exists a fine line between robust competition and almost deliberate assault.

Saturday's encounter was played in the shadow of a disciplinary record from the home team which does not bear close examination.

A combination of player suspensions, sin-binning and other misdemeanours have resulted in them potentially being penalised points in the league.

While communications to the opposition from the governing bodies both local and national are poor to say the least, to date any what might be termed punitive action seems not to have taken place.

However, the Manchester and District Referees Society, whether of their own volition or following instructions from the RFU, are making efforts to calm down what is an unsatisfactory situation.

Though it has not been stated as policy, it would appear that the society has decided that the control of the game must be in the hands of highly qualified referees.

Their insistence on this policy was shown on Saturday when the official was national three grade -- and it showed. Quite simply, De La Salle were blown off the pitch, both by him and, it has to be said, the efforts of Bury as well.

In a game marred by stoppages as the penalty count rose and rose, there was little for the spectators to enjoy.

Bury opened the scoring with a penalty after seven minutes, but De La Salle were to score immediately from the restart with a slick passing move that caught Bury off guard and gave them a deserved converted try.

This proved to be only one of three visits the opposition had into the Bury 22 in the first period. The second was for a 28-man brawl and the third for a tentative effort to add to their try count which was snuffed out by the Bury back row.

Bury were to take the lead from two successful penalty attempts, but in fairness it has to be said that they missed four easy shots at goal out of the 16 penalties that De La Salle conceded in the first period.

Ironically, the only other try scored in the game was in the 65th minute by De La Salle, who narrowly missed the conversion. They were already playing catch up as stand off Ian Webb had previously converted two penalty attempts in the 44th and 55th minutes.

Bury ran out winners by a narrow margin and accepting that the game was dominated by kicks, on balance particularly in the pack, they played well.

De La Salle did not help their cause when their scrum half walked off the pitch in the 60th minute of his own volition. Throwing his shirt to the ground, he trudged to the changing room and the only comment printable was that the referee's parents should get married.

With no translator to hand, the rest of his comments were lost to those on the touchline.

BURY: Smyth, Whitehead, Shimmons, Smithson, M Stott, Westwood (c), Kerr, Leighton, Smith, I Webb, Kyle, C McDougall, Robinson, L McDougall, Livesey. Replacements: Kennedy (for Stott 60 mins), Roberts (for Smith 62 mins).

Tomorrow Bury visit Tyldesley (kick-off 2.30pm).