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Pat Tapley heads into ninth Blues season
Bedford Blues are pleased to announce that the club’s longest serving current player, Pat Tapley, has extended his stay at Goldington Road into the 2022/23 Championship campaign.
Tapley, sponsored by the FECCers, continues to be the club’s most recent inductee into the Blues century club and has now made 123 appearances, scoring 60 tries; second only to Dean Adamson in both categories among the current crop.
He chipped in with 16 appearances and eight tries in 2021/22, including an absolute cracker against Nottingham at Goldington Road as Blues put together a sweeping move from one end of the field to the other.
On signing for a ninth season at Bedford, Tapley said: “There's nothing I haven't already said about what this club means to me, it's all pretty self explanatory.
"I continue to be privileged to play for the club, there's a really great group of lads. I'm excited to play with my best mate, Booj, again after a five-year hiatus.
"Thanks again to the #BluesFamily for their continued support #9thSeason."
Joint top try scorer in the truncated 2021 campaign and outright winner in 2014/15, Tapley has been an important figure for the club for the past decade and will now be looking to edge closer to the 150 club appearances mark in 2022/23.
One of the first players to transition into a rugby/work balance, the 31-year-old has spent the last few years as a teaching assistant at Biddenham based, St James Primary School.
Director of Rugby, Mike Rayer added: “Tappers has taken his PGCE Teaching Degree this year and has worked incredibly hard off the field to achieve this. Hopefully as the work load decreases we will see him doing what he does best, scoring tries.
“In terms of bang for buck, value for money, he’s up there with anyone in the squad. He doesn’t cause any problems and is obviously really popular with his teammates and the supporters. He wears his heart on his sleeve and we’re pleased he’s still here.
“When he came back from Australia after a little break, he picked up where he left off and is still a really good finisher. When he was playing this season, all the tries seemed to be going to the left side, so we’ll have to get the boys to practise their left-handed passing!”
