Blues back in action against Plymouth: preview
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Bedford Blues return to Goldington Road on Saturday looking to continue their good home form as they welcome Plymouth Albion.
The Blues only had themselves to blame after too many penalties were conceded against Leeds in their last outing with Carnegie fullback Tommy Bell punishing Bedford for their lack of discipline in the 21-17 defeat.
Sacha Harding and Handre Schmidt remain on the injury bench while the Championship’s top try scorer Josh Bassett misses out on account that he will be starting for England Under 20s against their Italian counterparts tonight in Rovigo.
Although Plymouth have been suffering problems off the pitch, they can boast a victory over Leeds and Bedford Director of Rugby Mike Rayer is under no illusion that Albion will be looking for another scalp this weekend.
He said: “Plymouth’s struggles off the pitch don’t appear to be affecting the team morale one little bit. Yes, they will be playing in the relegation play-offs, but they are in a good position with six bonus points for the victories they have this season and I’m sure that they will be targeting another one on Saturday.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted against Leeds and that was no one’s fault but our own. We repelled Leeds when they attacked but our discipline cost us and a fine kicking display by their fullback won them the game. Hopefully the lads learnt their lesson and we can put those mistakes behind us.
“Due to the postponement last weekend, we’ve had an extra week of training and I’m sure that everyone will be chomping at the bit to get back into action come 2pm on Saturday.”
The Blues make six changes to the team which started at Leeds with debuts for newest signings Darren Fox and Ben Cooper who replace Alex Rae and Phil Boulton respectively while the other change up front sees Don Barrell replacing the injured Paul Tupai.
In the backs there are changes at 9, 10 and 11 as Darryl Veenendaal, Jamie Lennard and Ollie Dodge start in place of Stefan Liebenberg, Jake Sharp and Josh Bassett. Sam Pailor and Phil Boulton return to the bench where they are joined by Henry Staff who has recovered from the injury that he picked up against London Scottish three weeks ago.
Starting line-up:
15. James Pritchard (c)
14. Mark Kohler
13. Brendan Burke
12. Ian Vass
11. Ollie Dodge
10. Jamie Lennard
9. Darryl Veenendaal
1. Sam Walsh
2. Neil Cochrane
3. Ben Cooper
4. Mike Howard
5. Sean Tomes
6. Gregor Gillanders
7. Darren Fox
8. Don Barrell
Replacements: 16. Nico Steenkamp, 17. Phil Boulton, 18. Sam Pailor, 19. Jon Fisher, 20. Stefan Liebenberg, 21. Jake Sharp, 22. Henry Staff
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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
