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REPORT | Brave Blues fall to defeat in Doncaster
It was a performance full of heart and endeavour from Bedford Blues but it was ultimately not enough for victory as their Championship Cup hopes were put all but over after a 29-20 defeat to Doncaster Knights.
Not the most straightforward of weeks with injuries and player availability a problem, Blues gave debuts to four players and really fronted up against a Knights side who blew them away less than six weeks ago in league competition.
Blues Director of Rugby, Mike Rayer said: “Considering the week we’ve had again in terms of getting loan players in, there’s lots of positives and I’m really proud of the efforts from the lads.
“Fair play to the lads who came in, we had a good training session on Thursday, and lots of buy in this afternoon.
“I thought that first 40 minutes was a really good advert for Championship Rugby with two really good sides out there. It was important we backed up last week’s performance against Coventry – the effort, endeavour and ultimately fronting up was needed because coming here is always a physical challenge.”
That bruising first 40 minutes that Rayer talks about concluded at 17-17 as both threw everything they had at each other in an attritional display in which there were very few errors and both sides had to work extremely hard to carve out their opportunities.
Having a solid set piece is always a strong platform to go and build a performance and Oisin Heffernan was like a man possessed at the scrum as he marshalled it beautifully to win five scrum penalties, including when Doncaster had the put in.
That allowed some momentum to be built and saw Blues go 10-0 to the good after the opening 10 minutes.
A penalty from Will Maisey got the ball rolling before Dean Adamson dotted down his 110th Bedford Blues try as part of the opening exchanges. Joey Conway made the initial break through halfway, before offloading to Charles Rylands who bounced off a challenge into the 22m and sent Deano away in the clear.
Heffernan was pretty much man marking John Kelly – who terrorised Blues in the league encounter – with the Irishman constantly off the line quickly to stop the big man in his tracks and halt any momentum he was trying to get for his side off the back of the lineout or peeling from the scrum.
Doncaster have experimented a bit more this season in terms of utilising their backs division and they were forced to spread the ball out wide a lot more this afternoon with Blues shutting down the stick it up your jumper and crash through the middle approach often implemented by Steve Boden’s side.
The achilles heel of Bedford – maul defence – again reared its ugly head to get the hosts back in the contest as George Roberts scored the first two of his eventual hat-trick to make it 12-10 in the favour of Doncaster.
Blues hit back with a fine sweeping move to the right-hand side to get Pat Tapley to the line, and an unbelievable nudge from Maisey made it 17-12.
A breakaway try from Maliq Holden concluded the pulsating opening 40 minutes with the scores level.
The second half didn’t quite have the same oomph as that of the first with it a more error strewn affair, but it was still a quality spectacle as both sides looked for the platform required to build a winning performance – with both needing the points for different reasons.
Roberts completed his hat-trick for the first points after the restart.
Blues spent what seemed like an age camped in Doncaster territory within the middle part of the half, getting within inches of the line on multiple occasions but ultimately coming up short every time. They took a long range three pointer from Sean French to close the gap to 22-20.
Doncaster made sure of the result in the final ten minutes as Kelly charged to the line – just about the only time he’d surpassed the gain line all afternoon – with Dolly’s conversion sinking Bedford’s chances of Championship Cup progression.
French hit the post, then Maisey missed an angled kick, as Blues went in desperate search of the losing bonus point but it wasn’t to be in South Yorkshire as Blues were consigned to waiting a little longer for a first win in Doncaster in well over a decade.
