Ampthill secure biggest win as Bedford Blues bounce back
Ampthill scored 41 unanswered second half points to secure a thumping 62-14 bonus point win over Richmond on The Olney Field, securing back-to-back Champ Rugby victories for the first time since December.
And neighbours Bedford Blues returned to winning ways in with a vintage Derby Day performance to seal a 50-21 victory away at Cambridge.
Speaking after side’s biggest win of the season, Ampthill head coach Dave Ward said, “I thought it was a really tense affair in the first half, but I knew we had more in our locker and we showed everything we could in the second half and we came away with an outstanding victory.”
The Mob got off to a flying start in their win, scoring the first try of the match just two minutes into the contest and were 14-0 up only nine minutes into the game after being awarded a penalty try.
Another Efan Jones kick through was batted out illegally at the back of the in goal area by Grieve, who received a yellow card for his error in judgement.
Despite being down to 14 men, Richmond started to cause Ampthill some problems and remarkably scored two converted tries to level the match after 20 minutes.
Richmond’s captain Paddy Case was shown a yellow card in the 36th minute after persistent infringing from the visitors, and Ampthill made them pay at the end of the first half, scoring their third try to take a 21-14 lead into the break.
But the Mob upped their momentum in a dominant second half to coast home.
Tries went to Efan Jones, Noah Caluori, Joe Heslop, Jack Bracken (2), Harrison Dakin, Luke Davidson, Josh Barton, and Oscar Wilson, with Davidson adding six conversions.
Blues' game was overshadowed by a medical emergency amongst the supporters, leading to an extended half-time break, which subdued the second half for both sides, but Blues emphatically put last week’s home defeat against Nottingham to bed.
Director of rugby Mike Rayer said: “Our thoughts are with the gentleman involved in today’s incident, and rugby obviously pales into insignificance in these situations. Our thoughts are with him and his family.
“On the pitch, the boys created a lot of space for us to run in those tries.
“Dean Adamson scored a hat-trick – that’s what Deano does – but credit to Cambridge today.
“They fought hard and had a real go at scrum time and at the breakdown and scored some good tries. Our focus this week was to put last week behind us and we did that.”
Bedford's other scorers were Michael Le Bourgeoise, Alex Day, Amena Caqusau, Nicholas Finch and Lucas Titherington 54 with four conversions for Will Maisey and one for Le Bourgeois 79.