Bury St Edmunds 21  Ipswich 13

Bury showed Ipswich the folly of underestimating a table-propping side when they ended a six-match losing streak with a valuable win over a their much-vaunted local rivals.

Ipswich supporters were left frustrated at the error-strewn performance of the talented XV which handed the game to their hungrier opponents.

Within five minutes of the second half Ipswich had given Bury a 21-5 cushion which proved too much to claw back.

The visitors only managed to land one out of six kicks at goal in the match, a vital statistic in the two-tries apiece result.

Bury were up 3-0 within the first four minutes when Ipswich conceded a penalty just outside their 22.

Tertius Terblanche missed the chance to equalise from a penalty and moments later a high Bury kick was misfielded by Terblanche and fellow South African Mike Ward; Bury’s right winger latching onto the bouncing ball to score. The conversion left Ipswich with their old bogey of coming from behind but this match had more in store for them.

In the 24th minute an Ipswich counterattack gave centre Sam Keeble-Taylor the chance to chip over the Bury defence and score Ipswich’s first try. Terblanche missed the conversion attempt.

The scrappy match resulted in two more penalties for Bury and Ipswich went into the second half down 16-5.

A promising turnover for Ipswich turned into a nightmare when the clearance kick was collected by the Bury winger who beat two tacklers to score out wide, taking the home side to a deserved 21-5 lead.

Ipswich captain Alex Briggenshaw, as in previous matches, laid down the law to his beleaguered troops and but the ensuing transformation was not enough to retake the result from the determined Bury pack.

A penalty kick from Drew Locke took the score to 21-8 but even Terblanche’s wide try, which Locke failed to convert, could stop the humiliating result for the visitors, who must regroup for this week’s match away to second-placed Diss.

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