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REPORT | Six of the best as Blues defeat Hartpury
Bedford Blues secured back-to-back away victories for the first time since December 2018 as they put Hartpury University RFC to the sword with a 42-19 victory at The Alpas Arena.
A real team performance that highlighted everything good about Bedford in every department, the fact Will Maisey tried to hand his Man of the Match award to a forward shows just how on song the team was and how every player played their own part in the five point win.
Forwards Coach, Sean McCarthy said: “It was great to see the boys fronted up at the set-piece compared to last week after putting in a lot of work in training.
“We were quite honest in the week because we weren’t at the races against Richmond last week, a lot of boys put their hands up and we spoke about the main focus being control this week.
“It wasn’t perfect but our half-backs showed that control in spades which is the pleasing point.”
Hartpury showed why they’ve started this season so well with quite a lot of territory and dominance in the first-half, but once Blues got going there was no containing Mike Rayer’s side moving to fourth in the table ahead of welcoming league leaders, Ealing Trailfinders to Goldington Road next weekend.
After a finely poised opening 20 minutes, Blues broke the deadlock through Tui Uru. It was patient play off the back of a clever lineout, and despite the penalty advantage, Bedford stayed patient and when Uru received the ball a metre out there was no other option but to score.
Maisey’s conversion made it 7-0 but Hartpury kicked themselves into gear following the score and quickly turned the game on its head to lead just five minutes later. First, Robbie Smith went over from close range then Will Crane benefitted from a driving maul. 7-12.
Blues continued to look dangerous and made their dominance count to re-take the lead on half-time. This time Rayer’s side showed how to work a driving maul and Maisey’s conversion to Reece Marshall’s score made it 14-12 at the break.
Hartpury responded to re-take the lead just after the restart through Crane’s second but from that point forth, there was nothing the hosts could do to stop a rampant Blues in full-flight as they peppered the home try line to conclude with six tries and a morale boosting victory.
Alex Day and Maisey – who was sensational – both set the tempo and gave the squad complete control of proceedings and when you make such clever lines as Ethan Grayson did on 44 minutes, it makes Maisey’s decision for him and Blues never looked back.
Playing his first Championship game since January 2020 – strangely against the same opposition – the returning Dean Adamson wasn’t going to be too far away from getting over the whitewash.
Again it was Maisey to set it up, sending a lovely grubber through which bounced back into our favour and Adamson got to the ball first ahead of the covering defender. 28-19 at that point and the bonus point secure.
Blues continued to dominate the territory and possession and secured their fifth try of the afternoon through another player to recently return to the fold. Again it was patient build-up in and around the try-line before Jordan Onojaife crashed over.
As he so often does, Adamson had the final word when collecting a kick through from Connor Tupai to score his 84th Bedford Blues try from just 113 appearances.
It sets up an almighty thriller next weekend against Ealing. Join us for the game, buy tickets here.
*Matchday photography provided by Lauren Couchman - LNC Images*
Teams
BEDFORD BLUES
15. Rich Lane (C), 14. Pat Tapley (55'), 13. Jamie Elliott, 12. Ethan Grayson, 11. Dean Adamson (77'), 10. Will Maisey, 9. Alex Day (66'); 1. Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (60'), 2. Reece Marshall (77'), 3. Ed Prowse (55'), 4. Luke Frost, 5. Alex Woolford (60'), 6. Karl Wilkins, 7. Joe Atkinson, 8. Tui Uru
Replacements
16. Jack Hughes (77'), 17. Joey Conway (60'), 18. Corrie Barrett (55'), 19. Jordan Onojaife (60'), 20. Bailey Ransom (69'), 21. Connor Tupai (66'), 22. Matt Worley (77'), 23. Josh Gillespie (55')
HARTPURY UNIVERSITY
15. Ben Foley, 14. Sam Smith, 13. Rob Smith, 12. Charlie Foley (50'), 11. Deago Bailey, 10. James Williams, 9. JB Bruzulier (CC) (66'); 1. Conor Maguire (61'), 2. Will Crane (CC) (61'), 3. Ciaran Knight (55'), 4. Dale Lemon (58'), 5. Cam Jordan, 6. Aled Ward, 7. Harry Short (70'), 8. Josh Fenner (55')
Replacements:
16. Luke Stratford (61'), 17. Lewis Holsey (61'), 18. Jack Stanley (55'), 19. James Scott (58'), 20. James Dun (55'), 21. Xavi Hastings (70'), 22. Oscar Lennon (66'), 23. Jack Tovey (50')
REFEREE
Sara Cox
ATTENDANCE
450
