Halstead Templars pay the price for slow start

BURY ST EDMUNDS III 37

Eastern Counties League division one south

HALSTEAD Templars ultimately paid the price for a slow start against Bury St Edmunds thirds as they were edged out in a 37-33 defeat in Eastern Counties League division one south.

Templars were able to field a much stronger side than the one that had defeated Brightlingsea seven days earlier in their season's opener, so they went into the game with some measure of confidence.

This proved to be misplaced, though, as Bury took advantage of their second team not having a fixture to bolster their side.

A slow start from the hosts saw Bury score three unanswered tries in the first half, with Halstead seemingly unable to stem the flow until a determined break by Sam Edwards saw him dot down and convert.

Despite the lift this gave Halstead, with Dan Bennett, Ben Bird, Callum Smith and Ed Pawsey taking the game to Bury, the visitors broke away to score again.

With half-time almost upon them Adrian Illingworth latched on to an off-load from Pawsey to score under the posts, though, and the Edwards conversion made the score 26-14 at the break.

It looked like business as usual when Bury notched a penalty and a try within the first ten minutes after the restart, however, Halstead began a fightback which had looked at best unlikely.

On 53 minutes, Liam Surgett spotted a gap and darted in to score, with Edwards once again adding the extras.

A rash of quite serious injuries to Craig Trevain, Smith, Oli Cuthbert and the influential Edwards left the home side with just 14 men with 20 minutes still to play but the Templars were buoyed by another Pawsey score.

With no time left on the clock, Jordan Samuel stole a Bury line-out five metres out and crashed over.

Harry Sanders kicked the goal and the Templars salvaged two bonus points from what could have been a disaster but they were unable to overturn the overall deficit at the final whistle.

The Templars now face a fight to get as many of the injured as possible fit to face table-toppers Hadleigh away on Saturday.