Rampant Bedford Blues top 50-points mark again in win over Cambridge

It was another vintage display from Mike Rayer's side who continue to grow game upon game and rose to sixth in the Championship table, building more momentum ahead of the tough trip to Caldy this weekend.

Michael Le Bourgeois said: “We had a bit of a rocky start but then to put 59 points on the board is good going.

“We did the simple things really well in attack, looked after the ball and scored some great tries. We’ve got some really good individuals who can pull things out of nowhere but today was also a team effort. Doing the basics well gave us those platforms.

“It’s very cliché to say the crowd were our 16th man but they turn up to watch a certain brand of rugby, and I thought we delivered that which makes it all the more pleasing.”

Sean French's hat-trick took him to 10 tries already in the season and an astonishing 30 from just 36 appearances.

Joey Conway, Cameron King, Michael Le Bourgeois, Will Maisey and the returning Jake Garside also got in one the act as Blues won the first competitive meeting with Cambridge in 44 years with suitable aplomb to satisfy the near 3,000 crowd.

A sublime second half display inspired Cornish Pirates to an impressive bonus point 46-24 win at Ampthill, the Mob’s first league defeat at Dillingham Park this season.

Ampthill head coach Paul Turner said “It was disappointing, but there were lots of good things that we did today.

“I thought in the first half we played great rugby, and could’ve scored two or three more tries that went begging.

“But in the second half we made too many errors and they capitalised on those and ran away with the game at the end.”

Ampthill led 17-15 at the break with Samson Adejemi and Morgan Strong tries and two conversions and a penalty by Gwyn Parks.

Pirates edged into a 29-17 lead after the break but the Mob closed the gap back to five points in the 55th minute, with a well-constructed team try finished off by Charlie Bracken.

But the Pirates delivered another sucker punch only four minutes later, with yet another dominant rolling maul finished off by Nelson, securing his second straight hat-trick in this fixture and they Pirates closed out the game comfortably.