The Championship

Moseley 19 Bedford Blues 26

Bedford Blues made sure of a place in the top eight with a well-deserved 26-19 victory at Billesley Common.

The scoreboard may not tell the whole story, but seven points doesn't really indicate how dominant the visitors were.

The Blues, whose defence was excellent throughout the 80 minutes, managed to cope with a two-man disadvantage in the first half and allowed the hosts nothing in the way of territory after the interval as they secured their 11th win of the league campaign.

On a heavy, muddy surface that was never going to encourage a fluid game, a 16-12 half-time advantage was turned into a 26-12 lead and it was only an injury-time penalty try that gave the scoreline a fairly close look.

A fourth-minute penalty from Tristan Roberts put Moseley ahead and after his first attempt had been pushed wide, Brad Davies levelled things up with a ninth-minute effort.

A yellow card for Ben Lewitt a couple of minutes later hardly helped the Blues' cause – Roberts putting Moseley ahead with his second penalty – and when Davies had responded in kind, Roberts restored the three-point advantage when Ian Vass was awarded a yellow card.

Luke Fielden made a superb covering tackle following a 70-yard break from Mike Gillick midway through the half and Roberts notched penalty number four to make the score 12-6.

Lewitt's return was instantly rewarded when referee Terry Hall, who gave whistle-happy officials a bad name with an officious nit-picking performance, decided that Moseley's pulling down of a maul should be punished with a penalty try.

Davies' conversion and his third penalty, which came as a result of Ally Muldowney's sin-binning, ended the scoring for the half with the Blues ahead at 16-12.

The scrappiness continued in the second period.

In fact, with play confined to the central third of the field and Hall giving his whistle a thoroughly good workout, nothing much happened until 15 minutes in when Luke Fielden and Duncan Taylor made significant ground down the left.

With the Blues exerting their influence on proceedings and the home side struggling to make any impression, it was little surprise when, 10 minutes from time, Gillick's yellow card enabled Davies to extend the lead to 19-12.

And the game was sealed in the 80th minute when Chris Goodman broke through and, drawing the full-back, fed Vass who had the simple task of touching down.

Davies converted easily and although some late Moseley pressure earned them a losing bonus point courtesy of a penalty try – Hall ending his individual effort in style – it did little to disguise the fact that the Blues got the least they deserved from their day out in the second city.

BLUES: Fielden, Dodge, Dorrian, Vass, Taylor, Davies, Walshe, Cecere (Walsh 41), Richmond, Boulton (Seal 59), Tupai (Harlock 65), Rae, Lewitt (Gillanders 71), Harding, Goodman.
Substitutes: Locke, Chudley, Knight.

Star Blue: Luke Fielden. An outstanding performance at full-back.