News

REPORT | Tough afternoon on the island

Posted: 17th December 2022

It was more than a frustrating afternoon for Bedford Blues in their latest journey over to the island as Jersey Reds made light work of moving to the top of the Championship table with a resounding 45-5 victory at Stade Santander International.

Jake Garside's breakaway try with the final passage of play was the high point of what was an otherwise difficult outing against the unbeaten table toppers who secured a tenth successive league victory this season in-front of their own support.

'Stick Together' was the message from the coaching group in the post-match huddle and that's exactly what the boys will have to do particualrly with the sellout fixture against Ampthill to come on Boxing Day to conclude our exploits for 2022.

In truth, Garside's try aside, Blues failed to register too many shots on Jersey and only broke into the 22m twice throughout the eighty minutes but knocked it on after building through 18 phases, then overthrew a lineout in the second half when in a strong position.

To concede 24 penalties is going to make it pretty tough, if not impossible, particularly against a side who want to maul you into the ground and to continually offer them platforms to create opportunities cannot happen on a journey to the island if you want to be successful.

Blues will take pride from Jersey only having 33% success rate when in the 22m, scoring on seven out of 21 visits to the red zone, but it was pretty comprehensive from the hosts who secured maximum points.

Jersey's tries came from Eoghan Clarke (2), Tomi Lewis, Will Brown, Stevie Longwell, Tim Grey and Macauley Cook while Russell Bennett added five conversions.

They could have got an eighth with a scrum at the death, but fortunately James Mitchell made a mess of his pass from the base and the bounce worked kindly for Jake Garside to sprint the length of the field and gives the travelling support something to smile about at least.

Bedford have nine days to dust themsleves down before that huge Boxing Day clash - where they will be desperate to stop Ampthill making a hat-trick of festive victories after successes on this day in 2018 and 2019.

Teams

BEDFORD BLUES

15. Matt Worley, 14. Sean French, 13. Jamie Elliott, 12. Ethan Grayson (51'), 11. Pat Tapley, 10. Louis Grimoldby (51'), 9. Alex Day (C) (55'); 1. Lewis Holsey (60'), 2. Jack Hughes (60'), 3. Oisin Heffernan (46'), 4. Luke Frost, 5. Robin Williams, 6. Karl Wilkins (60'), 7. Jac Arthur (60'), 8. Tui Uru

Replacements

16. Callum Burns (60'), 17. Monty Royston (60'), 18. Osman Dimen (46'), 19. Geordie Irvine (60'), 20. Charles Rylands (60'), 21. Jake Garside (55'), 22. Will Maisey (51'), 23. Tom Litchfield (51')

JERSEY REDS

15. Brendan Owen, 14. Tomi Lewis (50'), 13. Charlie Powell (55'), 12. Dan Barnes, 11. Will Brown, 10. Russell Bennett, 9. Jonny Law (48'); 1. Sam Grahamslaw, 2. Eoghan Clarke, 3. Steve Longwell, 4. Hamish Bain, 5. Macauley Cook (62'), 6. NAME, 7. Lewis Wynne (C), 8. Tim Grey (50')

Replacements:

16. TJ Harris (55'), 17. Greg McGrath (55'), 18. Adam Nicol (55'), 19. Tom Everard (62'), 20. James Dun (50'), 21. James Mitchell (48'), 22. Alex McHenry (55'), 23. Ryan Hutler (50')