National Colts Cup final

Bedford Blues 33 Nuneaton 16

Brilliant Bedford Blues became the first ever side to retain the National Colts Cup after putting Nuneaton to the sword at Franklin's Gardens.

Following on from last season's 30-5 triumph over Redruth, Denis Ormesher's U19 outfit had already ruthlessly disposed of London Welsh, Caldy and Worcester Wanderers on their way to a second successive final and a third in the competitions' 11-year history.

This was Ormesher's final game as academy boss before he departs to become director of rugby at Midlands One outfit Lutonians and his charges gave him the kind of send off he would have wanted.

Nuneaton registered first on the scoreboard after eight minutes when fly-half Tom Short converted a simple penalty chance directly in front of the posts.

But it didn't take long for Blues to respond and they did so less than four minutes later when Scottish U19 centre James Knight, who has also just been promoted to the first team squad for next season, piled over for the first try of the afternoon, although Luke Radley missed the conversion.

Short missed a penalty chance for Nuneaton on 14 minutes, before Blues' second unconverted try arrived two minutes later, scored by skipper Shane Allen.

The underdogs kept in touch with a Short penalty on 26 minutes, before Luke Radley gave the Blues a ten-point lead with two penalties in quick succession as the first half drew to a close.

Blues further extended their lead by a further three points early in the second period thanks to another Radley penalty, before they effectively sealed cup glory just seconds later with their third try. Number eight Tom Armes exchanged passes with Allen, before running through for the line and Radley converted to give Bedford a 20-point lead.

But despite the trophy now seemingly beyond them, Nuneaton manfully kept piling on the pressure in a bid to get back into it.

Their cause was helped slightly when Blues full-back Radley was yellow carded after stupidly getting entangled with the Nuneaton player and, with 12 minutes remaining, Short scored his side's first try of the afternoon, which was unconverted.

Then, with just four minutes left on the clock, winger Brett Chatwin finished off a flowing move down the right with another unconverted try but it was too little too late.

Bedford capped a memorable afternoon when replacement David Kingsbury added a fourth try in added time and, after the returning Radley nailed the conversion, the referee brought an end to match and a start to the celebrations.

Blues: Luke Radley, Adam Martin (Corey Hircock 75), James Knight, Duncan Taylor, Gareth Clarke (David Kingsbury 75), Jack Hoyles, Darryl Veenendaal (Tom Wilmore 53), Michael Skinner (James Wright 40), Chris Locke (Pat Reed 70), Jordan McIntyre, Shane Allen (C), Carl Siudak (Tom Lenton 74), Jack Micans, Jamie Wilkins (Oliver Pickett 68), Tom Armes.

Attendance: 2,123