Bury St Edmunds battle back in second half to beat Sevenoaks in National League 2 East fixture

Bury St Edmunds racked up a third straight victory in the National League 2 East thanks to Saturday’s 43-28 triumph at the expense of Sevenoaks.

After the Wolfpack started the new campaign with back-to-back losses, recently-appointed director of rugby James Shanahan called for patience as he and the newly-assembled playing squad worked to form understandings.

And the recent signs have been positive with consecutive wins against Oxford Harlequins and Esher being followed by last weekend’s success at Sevenoaks.

Despite the positive result, Bury got off to the worst possible start as the home side ran in two converted tries within the opening four minutes.

Jacob Ivell also added another converted try for Sevenoaks in the 15th minute, but Bury went on to score three tries of their own via Thomas Hoppe, Trystan Andrews and Matt Hema – two of which were converted by Ben Penfold – to go into the break 21-19 down.

Sevenoaks went on to score the first try of the second half in the 50th minute, with the subsequent conversion once again being added, but those were the last points that the home side scored as Bury took control of the encounter.

Matt Hema scored two more tries to complete his hat-trick, while further tries came courtesy of Joshua Pilkington and Patrick Robinson to wrap up the victory.

The win has moved Bury up to fifth in the table, four points adrift of table-topping Old Albanians.

They will aim to continue their positive run tomorrow when they welcome seventh-placed Westcombe Park to the GK IPA Haberden (3pm).

The visitors from south east London have won two of their opening four fixtures.