NATIONAL THREE LONDON & SE


Bury St Edmunds.................39
Westcliff..............................14

 

BOTTOM-OF-THE-TABLE Westcliff sunk to a fifth successive defeat, losing 39-14 at Bury St Edmunds.

The reverse left Westcliff still seeking their first win of the National Three London & SE season.

But first team manager Rick Compton is still confident his side can get back on track and avoid an immediate return to London One North.

“With a change of fortune and a few more bodies from which to select, a first win won’t be far away,” said Compton.

“Saturday was a disappointing result with some disappointing decision making and execution but as ever plenty of spirit and commitment was shown.

“The lads are finding it tough going at the moment but they continue to enjoy their rugby and represent the club with distinction.”

In constant rain, Westcliff started well and it was against the run of play after a rather harshly awarded penalty that Bury were able to break away and score deep in the left hand corner.

Shortly after that their large and impressive prop barrelled his way over from short range and the hosts led 10-0 after 20 minutes.

On the half hour they added a penalty to extend that lead to 13-0 but in between Westcliff had produced some promising passages of play to suggest they could cause problems of their own despite struggling in the set scrum.

For the remainder of the half the visitors continued to ask questions of the home defence and forced two penalties which were both kicked by Jack Jones.

Six minutes into the second half, Jones kicked a further penalty and Westcliff trailed by just four points.

But, after a poor restart and some exasperating and frantic errors by the visitors, Bury scored a gift of a third try and seized the initiative once more.

Following that, they pressed home their physical advantage and took the game swiftly away from their visitors scoring two further tries to take a 32-9 lead.

In reply, Westcliff were able to put winger Greg Bannister over in the corner for an unconverted try after 75 minutes to restore a modicum of pride.

But once more Westcliff were left wanting defensively in the game’s final play to concede one more converted try to seal a convincing win for the home-side.

Westcliff: Dudman, Bannister, Sebastian Reynolds, Sigwart, Merrick, J Jones, B Jones, Dellas, Hopkins, Binneman, Dartnell, Mhlaba, Webster, Marsh, Sam Reynolds Replacements: Whiting, Anderson-Brown & Manea.