Bedford Blues and Ampthill both fall to opening weekend defeats in Championship

Dean Adamson scored his 103rd Bedford Blues try against Coventry on Friday.

It was a disappointing opening weekend of RFU Championship action for Bedford Blues and Ampthill as both fell to defeat in their first games of the new campaign.

Ampthill were beaten 21-36 at home to Jersey Reds on Saturday, while the previous night Blues fell 26-18 at Coventry.

Bedford’s defeat came despite them taking the lead inside 30 seconds, Coventry losing possession in their own half cheaply from kick-off, Bedford recycling the ball and sending Dean Adamson away to score his 103rd try for the club.

But Alex Woolford was sent to the sin bin for an infringement at the maul, then Coventry were awarded a penalty try with the final passage of play and Blues were sent down to 13 as Jacob Fields was also shown yellow.

That made proceedings 14-8 to the hosts at the break who had scored previously in the half through their captain, Jordon Poole, while Will Maisey had nailed a superb 40m penalty in Bedford's other points.

Poole then got his second try after the interval to round off the win.

Winger Adamson said afterwards: "We've got to go back to the drawing board on Monday. That's the beauty of the start of the new season, we've got time to put things right, we'll regroup and go again against London Scottish next week.

"That wasn't the way Bedford should play and we need to sort it out."

At Ampthill, Jersey took only seven minutes to open the scoring, Ben Woollett coming inside to break the Ampthill line.

Woollett collected his second on 18 minutes and a 25th minute penalty try for pulling down the maul gave Jersey a 0-19 lead.

Ollie Stonham reduced the arrears to 7-19 on 33 minutes but Jersey secured their bonus point before half-time, taking a 7-26 lead into the break.

Ampthill improved in the second half and outscored Jersey by two tries to one. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White-White intercepted on his own 22 to run away and score before Theo Dan added another, but Jersey wing Tomi Lewis added Jersey’s fifth try with relatively simple finish.

Ampthill coach Paul Turner said: “We prepared well and knew what Jersey are about. Our set piece struggled but we were still tactically naive and poured a lot of pressure on ourselves. We talked about matching the Jersey kick-chase game and ultimately it was our downfall.”

Ealing come to Dillingham Park this weekend.