Bury Broncos 20 - 0 Rochdale Cobras

Bury Broncos brought home their first trophy in the clubs brief history with an emphatic victory over Rochdale Cobras on Sunday (17 March). A try from Prop Chris Lynch and a hat-trick from Centre Richard West with two conversions from Christopher Ready rounded out the scoring for the Broncos.

Bury successfully defended four straight sets of six in front of their sticks early on in the second half which proved to be the difference in a closely contested game.

The game was scoreless for the first 20 minutes, both teams squandered chances as Rochdale failed to convert an early line break. Bury enjoyed the greater field position but could not break through the Cobras scrambling defence.

The breakthrough was finally made on 26 minutes. A Rochdale pass was fumbled on the half way line allowing West to pounce on the loose ball and race away from the covering defence to score his first of the afternoon. Ready added the extras to give the Broncos a slender 6-0 advantage at the break.

Bury started the second half in possession and soon found themselves in Cobras territory again.

It was substitute Lynch who made the breakthrough. The prop charged on to a short ball before barging through several defenders for a powerful effort.

With Ready’s conversion the Broncos had doubled their lead just six minutes into the second period but the game was still in the balance as the Rochdale pressed hard to get back into the game.

Bury’s indiscipline allowed the Cobras to get the field position they needed but despite having several attempts to score they could not find a way through the Broncos scrambling goal line defence.

Bury’s forwards provided the platform to get back up the field. Their effort paid off on 62 minutes as Broncos captain Martin Wilcock gathered a loose ball and kept it alive. The second row handed the ball wide to West who cut inside and left a trail of Rochdale defenders in his wake as he crossed for his second try.

Ready’s attempted conversion rebounded off the post but Bury soon wrapped the game up four minutes later as West completed his hat-trick, burrowing over from close range to give the Broncos an unassailable 20 point advantage going into the closing stages.