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REPORT | Boxing Day delight for Blues against Jersey

Posted: 26th December 2021

There was more Boxing Day delight for Bedford Blues against Jersey Reds as the hosts made it three successive Championship home victories in a 28-19 success at a packed Goldington Road.

Bouyed by 4,004 inside the ground and hundreds watching on the live stream, Blues continued their rich vein of form at Goldington Road with an almighty performance to put more pressure on the Championship's Top Four.

Blues only trailed for two minutes throughout the entirety of the game as they went toe-to-toe with one of the best packs in the division and although conditions weren't ideal, they still played some scincillating stuff to score what should be the Championship's Try of the Week among three really well worked tries.

Will Maisey brought up 1,000 professional career points as he remained the leading marksman in the division and it was his penalty that started proceedings off on a great footing after just 14 minutes.

You barely had time to breathe before Blues were at their effervescent best with a try for the ages as Jamie Elliott finished off an unbelieveable move. Mike Rayer's side went the length of the field through the hands before Elliott cut a great line to collect Alex Day's offload.

Maisey's conversion made it 10-0 but that lead was halved on 21 minutes as Eoghan Clarke profitted from a clever driving maul to bundle over. Former Blue Sam Leeming missed the conversion.

Another penalty from Maisey - which was the one that tipped him over 1,000 points - swung the momentum back in favour of the Blues and there was just enough time to get another try to build a healthy lead at HT.

Jack Hughes' purple patch continued as he scored for the third successive game but it was again the build-up that set it up. There must have been another five or six offloads in this sequence as Blues again ripped through Jersey; Dean Adamson got close before being hauled down and Hughes was on hand to apply the finishing touch.

That made it 18-5 at the break but Jersey came out firing to turn the game on its head and lead by a point just after the hour as Clarke scored another two from driving mauls to complete a resounding hat-trick. He also scored twice in the reverse encounter.

You really started to feel the ferocity of the crowd as they cranked the volume up into another stratosphere and Blues were quickly back in-front through another Maisey penalty.

In the final 10 minutes, Jersey blew their chance of heading top of the league when they had James Mitchell and Harry Simmons sent to the sin bin in quick succession for deliberate knock ons and from there it was relatively easy for Blues to see out victory.

They even took Jersey's losing bonus point away from them at the death thanks to another well worked move, finished off by the captain and former Jerseyman, Rich Lane. Maisey's conversion rounded off a fantastic evening as Blues stormed to victory in-front of a simply superb attendance.

Not too long to rest on thier laurels, however, as it's off to Doncaster on Saturday for a New Year's day battle.

*Matchday photography provided by Claire Jones - redhatphoto.co.uk*

Teams

BEDFORD BLUES

15. Rich Lane (C), 14. Matt Worley, 13. Jamie Elliott, 12. Ethan Grayson, 11. Dean Adamson, 10. Will Maisey, 9. Alex Day (65'); 1. Joey Conway (45'), 2. Jack Hughes (75'), 3. Ed Prowse (45'), 4. Jordan Onojaife (65'), 5. Luke Frost, 6. Bailey Ransom, 7. Joe Atkinson (54'), 8. Tui Uru (54')

Replacements

16. Jacob Fields (75'), 17. Josh Pieterse (45'), 18. Karl Garside (45'), 19. Oli Stedman (54'), 20. Ollie Newman (54'), 21. Robin Williams (65'), 22. Connor Tupai (65'), 23. Pat Tapley

JERSEY REDS

15. Brendan Owen, 14. Ryan Olowofela, 13. Jack Roberts, 12. Jordan Holgate, 11. Will Brown (72'), 10. Sam Leeming, 9. James Elliott (45'); 1. James Flynn (57'), 2. Eoghan Clarke, 3. Steve Longwell (57'), 4. Sean O'Connor (65'), 5. Macauley Cook, 6. Max Argyle (79'), 7. Lewis Wynne (C), 8. Wes White (61')

Replacements:

16. Harry Doolan, 17. Roy Godfrey (57'), 18. Luke Yendle (57'), 19. Tom Everard (65'), 20. Alex Humfrey (61'), 21. James Mitchell (45'), 22. Tom Pittman (79'), 23. Harry Simmons (72')