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Match Report v Ampthill
You don’t often see penalties in pre-season fixtures but if this is the result, we’ll take watching them every week!
Locked at 35-35 apiece with a minute to go, Will Maisey held his nerve to nail one through the posts from the 10m line and send Goldington Road into raptures.
Blues still had to keep their heads as Ampthill had one final play to do something and when they put themselves into the corner, you started to fear we may have gone early with the kick. But the defence – which kept Ampthill out on more occasions than not – pushed them into touch to bring local bragging rights back to Goldington Road.
It was an ending befitting of a high quality contest in which neither side ever led by more than seven points, the respective defence coaches may have something to say but across the two fixtures with our friends and neighbours, 22 tries were scored and some quality attacking rugby played.
Ampthill struck first through Joe Luca-Smith before Blues retaliated and Jake Garside – awarded Man of the Match on his Blues debut – sprinted half the pitch to level proceedings.
Two minutes before the break, patience around the posts paid dividends as Emmanuel Iyogun forced his way over in the 17th phase, but it was to be 14-14 at the break as Luca-Smith got another.
The Northampton Saints duo combined to put Bedford back in-front minutes after the interval. Iyogun went first and got himself 2m short, before Garside went quickly to leap over the ruck and dot it down. All three kickers – Louis Grimoldby and Will Maisey from a Blues perspective – were faultless from the tee.
Ampthill levelled again through their hooker Billy Harding, but it wasn’t long until Blues were again leading as Pat Tapley scored within 30 seconds of coming onto the field. Ampthill’s defence was cut like a knife through butter before the ball was played wide and Blues’ longest serving current player was over.
This time Ampthill retaliated enough to turn things on its head. First they drew level at 28-28 through Carl Burgess then took the lead through the impressive Paddy Ryan.
Blues – who struggled at the set piece in patches of the game – fought back hard in the final ten minutes and set up the grandstand finish through a Penalty Try created from the most dominant scrum push.
With the clock at 80 inside the ground, Maisey nailed his kick and you thought it was over. Not quite, but Blues showed heroism in defence to nudge Ampthill into touch and claim not just a first pre-season victory but the local bragging rights are back where they belong.
*All matchday photography from Claire Jones - redhatphoto.co.uk*
