News
REPORT | Off colour Blues suffer defeat against Richmond
An off-colour Bedford Blues suffered their first home defeat of the season as Richmond continued their impressive start to the campaign with a 37-32 victory at Goldington Road.
In glimpses, Blues showed their classic offensive ability but were ultimately made to pay for ill discipline and mistakes at costly times as the visitors secured their first away victory in the Championship since April 2019 and first win in Bedford since May 1999.
Ronnie McLean – on his 100th Richmond appearance – led out the two teams and it was McLean’s side who hit the ground running from the offset, forcing Blues into multiple errors in all areas of the field.
Brandon Nansen saw an early yellow card for repeat offences and Richmond made the numbers game count when Will Homer scored an intercept try and Owain James also crossed in the other corner following a solid phase of play.
A Louis Grimoldby penalty was sandwiched in the middle of the two efforts and Blues did start to claw their way back into proceedings in the middle part of the game when back up to a full compliment.
Mike Rayer’s side had obviously seen what hadn’t been working in Richmond’s driving maul to implement one themselves through Reece Marshall, before Connor Tupai capped off Bedford’s best passage of play in the entire game with a smart diving finish.
A couple of penalties made it 20-20 at the break and Blues led for the first time shortly after the restart as Pat Tapley’s purple patch continued; several players were hauled down just short before Tapley got it down to make it five in four matches this season.
Blues should have kicked on buoyed by a crowd of 2,735 but there were too many handling errors, lineout miscues and general discipline issues to create any sort of impact on the game for a long enough period to build the scoreboard favourably.
Instead, back came Richmond as the impactful Freddie Hosking and David Massey scored to put the visitors into a healthy lead.
A late try from Ethan Grayson set up a grand stand finish but again Blues scuffed their lines when in possession to hand Richmond victory.
Blues fall slightly in the table to sixth, with it all to play for against a resurgent Hartpury next weekend.
*Matchday photography by Claire Jones*
Teams
BEDFORD BLUES
15. Rich Lane (C), 14. Matt Worley (53'), 13. Jamie Elliott, 12. Tom Litchfield, 11. Pat Tapley, 10. Louis Grimoldby (23'), 9. Connor Tupai (62'); 1. Joey Conway (46'), 2. Reece Marshall (64'), 3. Ed Prowse (58'), 4. Brandon Nansen (56'), 5. Alex Woolford, 6. Tui Uru, 7. Joe Atkinson, 8. Oli Stedman (48')
Replacements
16. Jack Hughes (64'), 17. Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (46'), 18. Osman Dimen (58'), 19. Jordan Onojaife (56'), 20. Luke Frost (48'), 21. Alex Day (53'), 22. Will Maisey (23'), 23. Ethan Grayson (62')
RICHMOND
15. James Kane, 14. Will Homer, 13. Cameron Mitchell (C), 12. Ronnie McLean (79'), 11. Owain James, 10. Ted Landray, 9. James Lennon (35'); 1. Jonny Harris (76'), 2. James Hadfield, 3. Jimmy Litchfield (56'), 4. Freddie Hosking, 5. Will Carrick Smith (66'), 6. Huw Worthington (56'), 7. Toby Saysell, 8. Mark Bright
Replacements:
16. Mike Perks, 17. Kurt Schonert (76'), 18. Ntinga Mpiko (56'), 19. Dave Massey (56'), 20. Byron Hodge (66'), 21. Callum Watson (35'), 22. Craig Duncan (79'), 23. Hamish Graham
REFEREE
George Selwood
ATTENDANCE
2,735
