Regular readers of my musings will know that your reporter subscribes to the theory that rugby matches often have a significant turning point. Of course - as I have also said before - it is far easier to identify those seminal moments after the event and in this case it was to be an important charge-down at the start of the second half.

The game had been preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of CS’ s past president, Ray Allwood, who passed away two weeks ago, as well as to mark the also recent 40th anniversary of the Orly plane crash in which seventeen members of the Bury St Edmunds’ club, our visitors on Saturday, perished.

There was a briskish westerly on this bright early spring afternoon at Duke’s Meadows and a 15-8 half-time lead for the Stags - who had had it at their backs - did not look nearly enough. That seven point margin had only been achieved by dint of the alertness of scrum half Tom McArthur who had spotted an inviting gap from a 5 metre scrum in the last act of the first half, the scores having been previously tied at 8 apiece. After an early exchange of penalties winger Jon Webber had sliced through against the grain after a line-out won against the throw and both sides were understandably having difficulty finding their jumpers in the conditions. That score had, however, soon been cancelled out by one from Bury ( whose nickname is the " Wolves"), following some good driving forward work.

The Stags were looking the livelier side behind the scrum but there was a major question mark about how much ball they might have in the second period and the areas of the pitch they were likely to be playing in.

The aforementioned turning point was, with the benefit of hindsight, surely the charge down by flanker, Joe Clarke of an attempted Bury clearance kick with the second half barely underway. It bounced perfectly for him and CS could celebrate his touch down by the posts. Scott Haddon was able to further extend the lead with a penalty shortly afterwards and now at 25-8 the game suddenly had a very different complexion.

The play was also not nearly as tight as in the first half either and although it was Bury who were next to score this more expansive approach to the game was very much what the home side of course wanted. The home support had been apprehensive about the second half prospects with the visitors perhaps exploiting the wind and playing to the tennis court corner but this just never materialised. Instead it became the hoped for running rugby banquet with fifth in the table Bury playing their part to the full when not attracting the by and large deserved ire of referee, Ben Wiles. They had twice in the course of the match to endure a ten minute period playing a man short.

It was Bury who scored next but that score was almost immediately cancelled out and when the same happened again it was clear that it was just not going to be Bury’s day. In fairness they did suffer some fairly cruel bounces of the ball but one has to make the most of such moments and CS who had seen the same happen to them more than once in other games were not going to let this one go.

Darragh Kelly and Scott Hadden (who notched up 22 points in total) were the further second half try scorers and at the end of the day the Stags were comfortable victors, although Bury did at least have the consolation of a try bonus point to go away with themselves. The aggregate try count over the home and away fixtures against the Wolves had worked out an impressive 10 - 7 in the Stags favour even if the away game in November was lost!

CS Rugby 1863 scorers:

Tries:

Webber
McArthur
Clarke
Kelly
Haddon

Penalties:

Haddon (3)

Conversions:

Haddon (4)