Under-strength Vets find Bury too strong in replacement game

Bury St Edmonds III 31pts

Royston Vets 7

WITH the eagerly awaited fixture against Saracens being postponed late in the week and the continued first team call-ups for Billy Payne and Paul Dacey resulted in Royston travelling away to a strong Bury St Edmonds with an under strength squad.

Playing against the wind and slope in the first half, Royston's backs were put under pressure from the start from strong running by the opposition centres who proved difficult to tackle throughout the match. It was they who soon created the opening for Bury to take the lead.

Royston responded well to going behind, with their forward Ronnie Barker and Stuart Highland excelling around the park and Colin Letch dominating the line-out.

A Royston score at this time seemed inevitable and a try duly followed with perhaps the best move of the game.

Started with an excellent break and neat interplay between the centre pairing of Steve Bristow and Steve Crook, the forwards then recycled several phases of possession tying in the opposition and creating space on the wings.

Neil Smith exploited the empty space to the full with a cross field kick beyond the Bury defence which bounced nicely into the arms of his name sake to score.

With Colin Dacey converting successfully; Royston took the lead for the only time in the game.

The Bury response was some excellent moves of their own, scoring again to take the half time lead.

The game was put beyond Royston's reach with a quick brace of second half tries by the Bury forwards.

A period of excellent Royston defence lead by Paul Rabbetts and Jerry Cottrill, Royston's man-of-the-match, kept the score down as did several last ditch tackles from captain Tony Payne, who making his season debut.

Bury did manage to cross the line again before the end to inflict the vets' third defeat of the second.

Royston: Guttridge, Howell, Highland, Cottrill, Letch, Rabbetts, Barker, Dacey, N. Smith, Crook, Bristow, N. Smith, Murdoch, T. Payne