NORTH LANCS LEAGUE ONE

Bury 12 Trafford MV 10

THIS was a must-win match if Bury were to retain any credibility as a force to be reckoned with in the bid for promotion from this league.

The visitors are one of the few teams who have the skill and commitment to contest a promotion place and a loss by the home side would have killed off any hopes Bury might still harbour after the defeat at Fleetwood.

The pack had a definite objective, deny any possession to the opposition, and this was borne out when Bury took the first two scrums against the head, courtesy of hooker Darren Whitehead.

Scrum half Glyn Smith was determined to release the threequarters and Freschini and Fawcett, playing in the centre, on at least four occasions threatened the opposition line and only some frantic tackling by the opposition and the odd Bury pass going astray stopped Bury going 15 points ahead after 20 minutes.

This doesn't take into consideration penalty attempts which were missed in the 13th, 16th and 19th minutes.

While the set scrum was totally dominated by Bury, the line-out was not as secure, and following two massive penalty line kicks by Smith to eight metres from the MV line, Bury lost their own put-in on both occasions and MV were able to clear.

Debutant Rob Wardle at left wing scored what appeared to be a perfectly good try, only to have it disallowed for a forward pass by a referee whose overall performance was both inconsistent and verbose. Bury now lost the plot. Having found out how to unlock the visitors defence by simple, quick ball and second phase from the back row, they descended into a kicking frenzy, ill-advised and poorly executed.

It gave possession to a team who were struggling to compete in ruck, maul or set scrum.

Bury nearly conceded a try in the last minute of normal time in the first half. Poor defence resulted in an MV line-out five metres from the line. Fortunately for the home side MV were to infringe and from the resulting set scrum Bury cleared their lines and the referee whistled to give the crowd a break from the stultifying boredom.

After the restart Bury were to lose Andy Smith at lock forward and had to re-organise, bringing on Ian Marshall at prop and moving Smythe to blindside flank and Nic Smithson into the second row.

This resulted in Andy Blenkharn playing No. 8 where he had an outstanding game.

Fifteen minutes into the half Bury were the masters of their own demise when trying to pass the ball out of trouble inside their own 22. They let it go to ground, MV picked up and scored a converted try.

Adding insult to injury, they kicked a penalty two minutes later, giving them a 10-point lead and with only 20 minutes of normal time remaining there was an ominous threat of defeat.

Had this been a soccer match, spectators would have been drifting away, but not Rugby Union supporters, who have perhaps, more optimism than common sense.

Their support was justified when, with two minutes remaining, Bury were awarded a scrum ten metres out and Smith and captain John Westwood combined to see Westwood wriggle over. Stand off Ian Webb added the conversion. Now five minutes into injury time, a break from scrum half Smith saw him cross the line, only to spill the ball and Bury's cause seeemed lost when MV hammered the resultant 22 drop out downfield.

To their credit, Bury advanced back into the visitors 22 and having been awarded three successful penalties and having taken the worng option at two of them, on the last a fast tapped ball, a crossfield pass by Webb, missing out two men to create space, saw Wardle get his compensation for his first half disallowed try by scoring to give Bury a victory they, on balance, deserved, though the MV contingent would probably disagree.

BURY: Smythe, Whitehead, Holland, A Smith, Kennedy, Blenkharn, Smithson, Westwood (c), G Smith, Webb, Stott, Freschini, Fawcett, Wardle, Boyd. Replacements: Marshall (for A Smith, 47 mins). Not used: Kelly.

Tomorrow Bury travel to Bolton for a local derby with a 2pm kick-off.