BLUES: Monday verdict
As dead rubbers go this 23-0 victory for Bedford at Moseley was right up there with the best of them.
It was as dead as a Dodo as soon as the Blues lost in Ulster back in November.
But, for all that, the sort of crowd that you used to get when Biggleswade played the Wanderers in the mid 1980s actually got a pretty decent contest.
Moseley were much better value than the score suggests.
And had the referee not changed his mind about awarding a try to the popular Brendan Burke right at the end because one of the Blues forwards was strangling someone at the maul, their die hard fans would have been even more pessimistic about their prospects on the final round of the Championship proper.
Just about everything on Saturday will have to go for them when they take on league leaders Bristol to avoid the relegation play off group.
And that includes Bedford beating Rotherham. "You've got to beat them", was the message from every man jack in the bar. "You've got to do the same to them as you've done to us."
Patience showed as the Blues built up a 9-0 lead at half time with a penalty from fly half Myles Dorrian and two from full back James Pritchard while Moseley were throwing the kitchen sink at them. And the hosts got close two or three times before prop Nathan Williams was sin binned for going in from the side - backside first.
Bedford had a couple of chances too and just before the turnaround fired-up scrum half Will Chudley and right winger Luke Fielden set up a chance for Ian Vass on the left only for the rock solid centre to be denied for a foot in touch. Then Fielden hacked on from his own 22 only to be denied by an unlucky bounce.
Early in the second half Pritchard missed a penalty but then chipped over and touched down and converted his own try as the Blues upped the ante. And on 58 minutes Fielden finally got his due reward when he crashed through the defence. Built like a boxer he's said to be on the radar of some big clubs and like the rest of the squad he'll be keen to shine in the play offs.
Read Neil's full report in the March 11 Times & Citizen
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Friday 25 May 2012
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