Bedford sign Cooper
Rugby: Coventry v Cambridge Ben Cooper Picture by Chris Fell
BEDFORD Blues have completed the signing of prop Ben Cooper from financially stricken Cambridge until the end of the season, writes James Heneghan.
Director of rugby Mike Rayer has brought the 22-year-old in following Dan Seal’s seven-week ban after he was cited for making contact with an eye or the eye area after the defeat at Bristol.
Bedford face Leeds on Sunday and Rayer said: “We’re a little bit rusty after having a couple of days off.
“We told the lads to switch off mentally last week, but we’ve got three sessions this week which sharpens the focus a little bit to make sure we’re back up to speed.”
Bedford will be looking for revenge at the weekend after Leeds beat the Blues 45-28 at Goldington Road earlier in the campaign.
Rayer continued: “We were disappointed with our performance against them earlier in the season.
“We were well in the game and it was an even contest until the last 10 minutes so we’ve got to put that right.
“They’ve got some real good players and we’re respectful of the challenge they bring, but we’re trying to concentrate on ourselves.
“Jon Fisher’s been training well and everyone else is pretty good apart from the ones we know about. Handre (Schmidt) is still a few weeks away and Sacha Harding is still out, but Ricky Reeves is on the verge of being OK.
“From our last game with them we learnt that you can’t fall asleep in the last 10 minutes and if you give anyone too much time and miss tackles then teams will hurt you.”
The regular Championship season is nearing its end with just four games remaining and Rayer has already set his goals.
He added: “We’re still finding consistency hard to come by but so is everyone else. The goal is to be peaking come the play-offs and that hasn’t changed.
“We want to get to the semi-finals at least, but it’s not going to be easy and we’ve seen that right the way through the season.
“If you’re not there mentally or physically then you’re going to get turned over and there’s going to be some real top sides in that top eight.
“It’s very important to be getting players back because you can’t beat a bit of competition for places.
“I know the capabilities of 70 per cent of my team but 30 per cent are relatively new and they need to stick their hand up.”
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Weather for Bedford
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
