Ipswich 55 Campion 0

Ipswich 19 - 64 Bury St Edmunds

Saturday 2nd February 2008

BURY St Edmunds were completely dominant in the final of the Suffolk Chadacre Cup at Humber Doucy Lane on Saturday. Ipswich battled hard and never gave up, but Bury were simply too strong.
It was a beautiful day for rugby with only a slight wind across the pitch. The game started at a very hectic pace with Ipswich constantly pressuring Bury at every opportunity. So much so that after 20 minutes they were leading 9-0 as Bury gave away penalty after penalty, probably from frustration, as they hardly touched the ball in that time. The large Bury support went very quiet, only to start cheering loudly when, on the half-hour, Bury ran in their first try.

The backs had hardly seen the ball but once it was in their hands they ran through the defence, with Struthers scoring under the posts. Beukes duly converted. A few minutes later it was Vuki who showed his strength by running through several tacklers to score a converted try. Five minutes later a sweeping move right through all the backs' hands saw the winger Muir score out on the left. Beukes definitely had his kicking boots on as he converted that one, too.

Just before half time Ipswich were awarded a penalty which they converted but they trailed 27-12 at the interval. The second half demonstrated the difference between a team midway in the London Two North and one lying near the bottom of London Three North East. Bury ran in six tries, two by Beukes the stand-off, one by Buckman, who played a massive game at No. 8, Geatches, who came on at flanker, the winger Muir and full back Cocks. One of these tries was not converted but Beukes made up for it by slotting over a penalty.

In the dying minutes Bury relaxed a little too much and Ipswich got a consolation try at the end, which they converted.

Bury will now go on as Suffolk champions to play Shelford in the Eastern Counties Cup.

Ipswich 19 Bury St Edmunds 64