Bury St Edmonds (‘Bury’) took a well-deserved away win against an initially luck-lustre Havant who fought hard in the second half but conceded three converted tries in the first 25 minutes. The game was won and lost up front with the Bury forwards controlling first-phase possession for the majority of the match through a dominant scrum and a line-out that challenged Havant’s forwards all afternoon.

Havant started the match with six changes, three positional, to the side that lost to Canterbury last weekend, welcoming back Jarod Leat, Jack Colbourne, Dylan Evans and Colin Sisk after injury, with Sean Shepherd restored to the hooker position and Ben Griffin reverting to his regular full-back berth. Ben Holt, with only an aborted appearance at scrum-half against Westcombe Park so far this season, and Armandus Morgan at prop, joined the replacement’s bench. Bury St Edmunds themselves made six changes, two positional, from the side that lost narrowly after a good comeback against Westcombe Park the previous weekend. This included an entirely new front row which it turned out was their first-choice front row – like South Africa, ‘BSE’ decided to play their 2nd choices from the start last week.

On a murky, cool day with a challenging wind, Bury kicked off playing right to left (if you were watching from the stand) and although Havant had early possession on the 10m line, two consecutive penalties, the first with Havant worryingly shoved off the ball at the scrum gave the visitors a line out close to Havant’s 5m line. From the lineout Bury got their rolling maul going and the No8 Ruaraidh Williams touched down a few metres from the right-hand touchline. The try was converted by Ben Penfold to make it 0-7 on 6’.

It took Havant seven minutes to make it into the Bury St Edmunds half, thanks to a Bury touch kick that went out on the ‘full’. However, a knock-on meant Havant lost possession and from the retreating scrum the Bury full-back Euan Rees streaked through a gap on the blind-side to the left, passed to Tim Andrew and it was only thanks to a last-ditch tackle from Will Perry that he failed to score. Havant lost the ensuing line-out, despite having the throw-in and, finding space through the middle, the visitors put Tim Andrew through again and this time he dotted down close to the posts. Penfold converted once more to make it 0-14 on 11’

The Suffolk men were clearly enjoying early scrum and line-out dominance, with Havant conceding regular penalties, two of them from scrums, with the Havant forwards moving backwards at a disconcerting pace. Knock-ons were not helping the Havant effort either. After 14’ Havant secured some ball and Reuben Knight found touch from a penalty inside the Bury ‘22’. This really was Havant’s first appearance in this part of the field. Pressure from Havant led to a second penalty, after Will Perry had got very close to a cross-field kick from Reuben Knight, as the referee played advantage.

Eventually Bury turned over Havant ball through a big scrum shunt and ran the ball out to Havant’s ‘22’. A long delay that left the crowd – and the players – confused at a scrum lead to Jarod Leat getting a warning from the referee. He was quickly replaced by Armandus Morgan.

On 24’ the visitor’s forwards pushed Havant backwards at a scrum close to the Havant line giving time for Williams to touch down for his second on 25’. Penfold converted once more with Havant prop Armandus Morgan shown a yellow card – barely a minute after he went on.

Havant finally found some fire and with it, quality possession. A minute later they won a penalty near halfway giving Reuben Knight time to kick to touch close to the ‘22’ on Havant’s left. From an attacking lineout flanker Jack Colbourne made good yardage and passed on to Dylan Read who was tackled high as he received a try-scoring pass. A yellow card for Bury to Ruaraidh Williams and a penalty try for Havant was the result. The score now 21-7 on 29’.

Three minutes later it was 21-14. Havant had more of the game after the kick off. A nice break from Freddie Ferson, followed by a Joel Knight mini-break and drives from Jack Colbourne and Sean Shepherd splintered the Bury St Edmunds defence and Jacob Knight ran in unopposed to make it 21-14 on 33’. He converted his own try. Havant were ‘in the game’ with far more bite from the forwards when they had possession.

Havant were defending with more bite too. A penalty to Bury was over-kicked with Havant dropping out from the ‘22’. Back came the visitors but Havant were now making their tackles count with Archie Cleeve to the fore with two ‘chop’ tackles. A bit of a 2023-style kicking contest ensued (before the RFU tried to stop it) which was indicative of the cagier nature of the game at this point. However, a penalty gave the visitors an attacking line-out, allowing Williams to score again close to the posts on the right for his hat-trick on the verge of half-time. This made it 14-28 with Penfold converting. It felt like a really bad time to concede with Havant becoming far more competitive.

Early in the 2nd half, Havant won a penalty with Colin Sisk taking a quick ‘tap’ before passing to Reuben Knight through the middle where Bury conceded another penalty. Reuben Knight went for touch where Havant fortuitously managed to retain their own ball and moved it to Will Perry on Havant’s right. The ball moved to the left with backs and forwards handling well. A second yellow card for Bury St Edmunds gave the space for the increasingly effective Colin Sisk to score after a penalty and subsequent lineout had inspired more backs and forwards interplay, with Jacob Knight converting for 21-28 on ‘46.

Havant were now consciously competing at the lineout and demonstrating that in windy conditions it’s almost always worthwhile doing this on the basis that hookers will struggle to thrown in straight, and so it proved. Another kick tennis session lasted for what seemed like 5 minutes. However, after a period of relative stasis a defensively resilient Bury then attacked and kicked a penalty to the corner and found space for full-back Euan Rees to score and make it 21-33 on 52’.

Ben Holt came on to replace Jacob Knight at inside centre, not his natural position. From the try kick-off Angus Southon had a chance to score directly but couldn’t quite hold on. Havant got back to the 22’, eventually conceding a scrum from a knock-on allowing Bury St Edmunds to get back into the Havant half. It was fairly even at this point, with Havant perhaps having the upper hand. Jack Colbourne made a terrific break and attempted to chip over the full-back’s head to score but the ball was charged down. Bury knocked on after a scrum and eventually conceded a penalty after an excellent move from the Havant backs. The ball was kicked to touch, where good lineout possession gave the backs a chance to move it. Ben Griffin cut a neat line inside before passing, giving the space for Will Perry to score on the right. Joel Knight kicked a great touchline conversion to make it 28-33 on 69’. Havant had earned their try bonus point.

On 72’ Bury got to the Havant 5m line and it looked ominous for the side but Bury St Edmunds got bogged down and conceded scrum possession to Havant. Bury St Edmunds were now seeing a lot more of the ball at the wrong time for Havant with Jack Colbourne having gone off to be replaced by Scott Thompson. A long break lasting 3-4 minutes after injury to Bury’s replacement Josh Cilia perhaps took a bit of sting out of the Havant effort too. A scrum penalty (rarer now with the Bury front row replaced) gave the away side the chance to deprive Havant of the losing bonus point. Ben Penfold kicked a relatively simple chance to make it 28-36 and a few moments later the match ended.

Havant Head Coach Will Knight rued their slow start: ‘All credit to them. They were clinical in the first quarter with a dominant pack giving them a great platform to launch their attacks. We got some possession in the 2nd half and looked better, but you can’t win the match without good first-phase possession.’