Bury St Edmunds head coach Jacob Ford looking forward to Canterbury test

Bury St Edmunds head coach Jacob Ford revealed his side are ‘itching’ to get back on to the pitch after their Christmas break and that he is expecting a ‘physical test’ against Canterbury upon their return to National League 2 East action.

After having two weeks off, Ford and Bury were back on the training pitch on Tuesday to prepare for their first game in three weeks at The GK IPA Haberden tomorrow (3pm).

Bury were in a fantastic vein of form before the pause in the season. They had put together an eight-game unbeaten run, winning seven of them, and had not tasted defeat since late September.

“I think the whole feeling is that we’ve had a nice two weeks off but we’re itching to get back to it now,” said director of rugby and head coach Ford. “You look at these four games that we’ve got coming up, three of them are at home so it’s a massive block for us and it’s going to put us, hopefully, in the mix with those top four teams again.

“We were pretty disappointed with the Westcombe Park draw that we had (in November).

“We learnt a lot from that and I think it’s going to put us in a good place in terms of not allowing that to happen again for the rest of the season.

“We come back into January with a little bit of a refocus and I think the other thing as well is that we had quite a few injuries so I’m looking forward to having a relatively fully fit squad, competing for positions and targeting these next four games.”

Bury’s impressive run of form that they built in the months leading up to Christmas has earned them fourth spot at the turn of the year with tomorrow’s opponents in sixth and Henley, who Ford’s side will face on January 13, in fifth.

They have the chance to pull away from the mid-table pack over the coming weeks and when asked whether the break came at the wrong time for his side, Ford said: “Momentum is massive but the boys did need a rest.

“I’m a firm believer that you create your own momentum and the last two seasons, every time we’ve come back in January we’ve had the bit between our teeth.

“We’ve been really focused on delivering the best performances we possibly can and I’m looking forward to having that same energy and drive within the group.

“I’m expecting a physical test (against Canterbury) more than anything. They’re a much improved team than they were in the previous season. They turned over Tonbridge away from home just before Christmas which is definitely not an easy result to get. We’ve learnt that over the last two years.

“They’ve got excellent set pieces have Canterbury, so we’re going to have to be at our best in that area and make sure we are well prepared. It’s going to be a difficult one for us.

“We’ve got to keep picking up performances and results. We want to be creating our own momentum and making sure our performances are getting better each week.”