Poor Blues lose out in second half to Scottish

Dan George in action for Bedford against London Scottish

Heading up the slope in the first half, Bedford certainly enjoyed more of the ball but they couldn’t find a way through the stubborn London Scottish defence who spoilt numerous attacks.

Mike Rayer’s side went ahead on 24 minutes when Myles Dorrian kicked a penalty, while Blues had a try before the break as Tom Griffiths was fed by Tom Whiteley and managed to twist and turn his body over the line.

Dorrian’s conversion put the hosts 10-0 in front as the majority of the 2,339 inside the ground expected Bedford to push on after half time.

However, Dorrian missed a penalty as Bedford began making a host of errors, Peter Lydon converting a 61st minute penalty to make it 10-3.

Blues were still dangerous when they had ball in hand. Dean Adamson and Pat Tapley looked lively as did Piers O’Conor but the back three just couldn’t find the space to break and were often forced backwards by the advancing Exiles defence.

Bedford were ultimately punished in the 68th minute when a rampaging London Scottish driving maul was illegally disrupted by replacement Jason Hill who was carded for his efforts.

The Exiles opted to go to the corner and their driving maul kicked into gear with David Cherry being the man to ground the ball before Lydon struck a superb conversion to level the scores.

Bedford had been shaken and again they shot themselves in the foot as they knocked on from a kick down field and then coughed up a silly penalty in the 79th minute for being offside at the ruck. Lydon made no mistake as he won it.

Jake Sharp missed a late chance to level, his penalty drifting wide as Christian Judge told the club’s official website: “It was very disappointing. I thought we had a positive first half and looked in a strong position but in the second we made some errors, lacked discipline and it cost us in the end. We knew Scottish were coming here off the back of a couple of disappointing results and would be looking to really play some rugby but it was our negatives that helped them out.”

Blues travel to Yorkshire Carnegie on Friday.