March Bears suffer defeat against Mersea Island in Counties 2 Eastern Counties League opener

Injuries to key players proved costly as newly-promoted March Bears started life at a higher level of rugby with a 24-9 home defeat against Mersea Island.

Bears were playing their first Counties 2 Eastern Counties League on Saturday on the back of an undefeated season in 2023/24, which saw them gaining a well-deserved promotion

This however was to prove an attritional game with little given by either side and for the Bears it was a huge test against a well-drilled, experienced outfit from Mersea Island.

With 29 penalties given against Mersea, March officials were baffled why it took until the 75th minute for any Mersea player to see yellow.

However, the game saw an immediate penalty against the Bears which saw them trail early on but they levelled the scores with a penalty of their own from Sam Howat

Another penalty gifted a second score to Mersea but again a few minutes later Sam Howat belted a penalty over from distance to even up the scores again

Mersea continued to tick up the penalty count against them and two kicked attempts by March were missed.

Then incredibly, despite the penalty count the other way, Scott Conway was given a technical yellow card for March and within a minute from the ensuing ruck, Mersea collected a push-over try in the corner.

This was followed up by a very good conversion from the touchline and this saw the sides turn around at half-time with Mersea holding a 13-6 lead.

For the first 20 minutes of the second half, the score stood still until the 60th minute when Sam Howat kicked his third penalty of the day as March moved to within four points of their opponents.

However the physical nature of the game then saw March suffer several injuries to key players with Ciaran Brown, Bryn Pughsley then nearer the end Harvey Brown all having to leave the field of play.

March were twice frustrated on the try line before Mersea managed another try from an organised eight-man maul on the line.

Two further late penalties were scored by the away side as March suffered their first defeat in more than a year.

The game proved to be a great test for the young team and hopefully, one from which lessons have been learnt going forward.