Civil Service came up against a Bury St Edmunds team in top form in this game and were under pressure to perform from the off after the two and a half hour coach trip from London. Bury St Edmunds started well and within 5 minutes put a well thought out chip over the top into a corner for a chase and an easy try 5 -0. This was followed by a penalty as Civil Service gathered their thoughts and tried to stop the progress of Bury St Edmunds 8 – 0 after 10 minutes. Steadying the ship Civil Service pushed into the Bury St Edmunds half and were rewarded with a penalty as Bury infringed converted by Aaron Campbell 8 -3, 13 minutes. However within two minutes the Bury St Edmunds winger had cleverly cut through the usually solid Civil Service defence to score under the posts 15 – 3 after 14 minutes. Civil Service came out of the onslaught and started to play rugby putting Bury St Edmunds under some good pressure and in the to and fro Civil Service were judged to have infringed and Bury St Edmunds were rewarded with penalty on 35 minutes Bury St Edmunds took the penalty to consolidate their lead 18 -3. Civil Service were pushing hard as the half came to a close and again were overly competitive and received a yellow card on 39 minutes. Down to fourteen players at the start of the second half was to put Civil Service were under great pressure and Bury St Edmunds took advantage scoring out wide on 44 minutes 23 -3. Civil Service continued to show they were still a threat in the game in the game and piled on the attack, back to full strength as they pushed Bury St Edmunds back finally their 7 caught the eye of the referee and received a yellow card on 55 minutes. Civil Service made good use of that advantage to increase the pressure on Bury St Edmunds and in good piece of play moved strongly into the 22 with a scramble on the try line Dan Somerville made the touch down 23 -8 on 58 minutes. Continuing to play with confidence Bury St Edmunds seemed to be coming under pressure and yielded a second try to Civil Service 23 -13 on 70 minutes. Was there going to be a surprise, the answer was not this time Bury St Edmunds back to full strength pushed forward and in a tight call were given a penalty and Civil Service a yellow card which sealed the game 26 -13 on 75 minutes. To add insult to injury in the last minute under severe pressure in defence, one man down, a pass was dropped and Civil Service were punished under the posts score finishing at 33 -13.
Paul Tiller