News

REPORT | Blues suffer defeat in Nottingham

Posted: 26th March 2023

It was a bad day at the office as Bedford Blues suffered their first Championship league defeat in two months with a 26-24 reverse at Nottingham.

On a day they could have wrapped up their fourth placed position mathematically after defeats on Saturday for the trio of Doncaster Knights; Hartpury University and Cornish Pirates, Blues couldn’t seize the initiative and were left with a disappointing defeat.

Blues have been ripping teams apart for fun in recent weeks but looked blunt in attack this time around, and made too many critical errors to warrant winning the game. They also came out second best in the kicking / territory battle and were ultimately left to suffer the consequences.

When they did put free flowing passages of play together, it was extremely effective, but they were so few and far between that they couldn’t put together a sequence of momentum at any point.

Bedford led for just five minutes in the game after Alex Day’s early try seemed to make it the perfect start, but they never built on it despite a rally in the second half.

This team always regroups, which is a positive, and there’ll be no more motivation needed than facing the league leaders next weekend as Ealing Trailfinders head to town on April Fools Day. The lads need all the support they can get, click here to buy tickets.

A 15th try of the campaign for Sean French was another highlight, and there were further tries from Kayde Sylvester and George Hendy, but Blues’ winning run over Nottingham ended in drab circumstances.

*Matchday Photography supplied by Claire Jones - redhatphoto.co.uk and Kie Fewster - keyeyeshoots*

Teams

BEDFORD BLUES

15. Goerge Hendy (63'), 14. Sean French, 13. Jamie Elliott (49'), 12. Joel Matavesi, 11. Dean Adamson, 10. Will Maisey (63'), 9. Alex Day (C); 1. Joey Conway (63'), 2. James Fish (63'), 3. Ed Prowse (49'), 4. Robin Williams (63'), 5. Tom Lockett, 6. Luke Frost, 7. Kayde Sylvester (30'), 8. Tui Uru

Replacements

16. Jack Hughes (63'), 17. Monty Royston (63'), 18. Corrie Barrett (49'), 19. Emeka Atuanya (63'), 20. Charles Rylands (30'), 21. Jake Garside (63'), 22. Louis Grimoldby (63'), 23. Ethan Grayson (49')

NOTTINGHAM RUGBY

15. Jordan Olowofela, 14. David Williams, 13. John Neville, 12. Charlie Thacker, 11. Ryan Olowofela, 10. Sam Hollingsworth (63'), 9. Michael Stronge (63'); 1. Aniseko Sio (54'), 2. Harry Clayton (63'), 3. Xavier Valentine (54'), 4. Callum Allen (63'), 5. Iosefa Maloney-Fiaola, 6. Carl Kirwan, 7. Nathan Tweedy (C), 8. George Cox

Replacements:

16. Jack Dickinson (63'), 17. Toby Williams (54'), 18. Dan Richardson (54'), 19. Ross Bundy, 20. Jack Shine (63'), 21. Sam Edwards (63'), 22. Morgan Bunting (63'), 23. Michael Green