On-song Bedford thrash sorry Plymouth
Blues rack up half century on opening day
Bedford 51 Plymouth Albion 3
Bedford Blues put in a superb performance in the first game of the season to record a massive 51-3 victory over Plymouth at Goldington Road on Saturday.
After narrowly missing out on promotion last year, Bedford are looking to challenge again and they got off to a perfect start with this result.
The home side ran in eight tries as Ollie Dodge scored a hat-trick and James Pritchard chipped in with a brace.
Blues director of rugby Mike Rayer named three debutants in his first team of the season with Tom Bedford, Laurence Ovens and Jackson Wray all featuring as well as places on the bench for Sean Tomes and Joe Clark.
Captaining the side for the first time was former Plymouth fullback James Pritchard.
Bedford, who were looking for their third consecutive win over Plymouth after beating them twice in the play-offs at the end of last season, started the brighter and soon took the lead with an early penalty.
It came about when a mistake from a jittery Plymouth side resulted in Duncan Taylor collecting the ball inside the Albion half.
Good Blues pressure forced the penalty, which Pritchard duly converted for a 3-0 lead.
Blues continued to dominate possession and territory but couldn't find a way through a resilient Albion defence despite a good burst from scrumhalf Darryl Veenendaal.
It was clear that this was a opening season encounter as both sides made several silly mistakes.
But continued dominance from Bedford eventually led to the first try of the game after 25 minutes.
A wonderful grubber kick from Brendan Burke was latched on to by the onrushing Sacha Harding, who slid over for the try.
As Plymouth kept making mistakes Bedford looked like they would wrap up victory before half time but for some good work by the visiting sides' defence.
And Albion started to get back into the game with a sustained period of possession.
It led to a penalty on the halfway line, which was brilliantly slotted over by Mark Lee to reduce the deficit to just five points.
However more superb play for the Blues s a terrific pass from Paul Tupai allowed to Dodge to run through unchallenged and extend the lead after Pritchard converted.
An impressive first half performance was then improved with a third try on the brink of half time.
Patient work from Bedford allowed them to build momentum and when Dodge received the ball wide on the right, he beat several men and finished off another good try.
It meant that Bedford went into the break with a deserved 20-3 advantage.
The Blues continued were they left off after the interval as their dominance led to a yellow card for Plymouth's Ruairi Cushion for a professional foul.
Bedford made the extra man count immediately as they scored a fourth try straight from the resulting penalty.
Having kicked into touch, the home side won the line-out and drove towards the line where Dan Richmond was on hand to go over to give Bedford the precious bonus point.
But they weren't done their as just three minutes later they extended their lead even further when Dodge went under the posts for his hat- trick, making the score 32-3.
The game then began to settle down into a scrappy affair with the pouring rain causing problems for both sides.
It didn't stop Bedford from scoring three more tries, though, as they were completely dominant in the final 20 minutes.
A fine burst from the impressive Veenendaal created space for Taylor score a sixth Blues try.
It was then the turn of Pritchard to get on the score sheet with two tries in the final two minutes.
First he took advantage of some good build up play to go over in the corner before a clever grubber kick from Nick Walshe meant that he was in acres of space to run under and secure a very comfortable 51-3 win.
Blues: Pritchard , Taylor, Burke, Bedford, Dodge (Short 59), Dorrian (Farrel 59), Veenendaal (Clark 65), Ovens, Richmond (Tomes 65), Seal (Boulton 50), Howard, Tupai (Walshe 65), Rae (Gillanders 59), Harding, Wray.
Referee: Dean Richards
Attendance: 2,447
Star Blue: Duncan Taylor
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Weather for Bedford
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 5 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
