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REPORT | Destructive Blues Women in home rout
Bedford Blues Women put in their most complete performance to date to secure safe passage through to Round Two of the RFU Junior Cup thanks to a barnstorming 40-0 victory over St Neots Ladies.
Use any superlative you want and insert it here, it was genuinely that good as they put everything into practise from a tough pre-season schedule and ripped through their opponents for a six-try demolition job at Goldington Road.
Two hurdles overcome right at the start of the campaign – they haven’t been able to buy a win against St Neots but finally put right to that record and as well, Goldington Road hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds but a first victory since March 2022 at the historic venue sorted.
Pick any facet of the game and Blues were the better side. There’s no official statistics but it would surely read at least 65% of the game played inside the St Neots 22m such was the pressure that they put on their visitors who looked shellshocked at the improvements made.
Huge credit to Head Coaches Eddie Rennell and Peter Frost because they’ve implemented new processes, new methods of attack and they looked like they’d score at will.
Without question, the best defensive performance the side have ever put together. And that’s not easy going up the slope in the second half – but they were never going to be breached and constantly got off the line with haste to stop anything that did come at them right at source.
Kesteven last weekend ran through the gaps a little at will last weekend and it’s a huge testament to the side that they’ve re-grouped and re-calibrated so quickly. It takes a lot of bottle to pick yourself up off the canvas but the attitude is so good at the moment and they got the rewards that hard effort deserves.
In terms of the scoreboard, that was ticking over constantly and really nice to see so many different faces getting on the scoresheet. Amy Winter followed up her Most Improved award success last season with her first score in Blues colours, history maker Emma Graham got two while Esme Fish, Jemma Langton and Izzy Parks also crossed.
Captain Lucy Middleton went 5/5 in the conversions – she was the off the field for the sixth attempt – and becomes the first player to clock up 100 points for the club.
Onto arguably the toughest test of the season when Milton Keynes roll into Goldington Road next Sunday (KO 2pm). Win that, and the sky really is the limit…..
Bedford Blues Women Starting XV:
15. Emma Graham, 14. Natalie Daly, 13. Izzy Parks, 12. Jemma Langton, 11. Amy Winter, 10. Lucy Middleton (C), 9. Esme Fish; 1. Emily McBarron, 2. Alivia Usher-Harris, 3. Millie Rennell, 4. Cat Chambers, 5. Sara Wright, 6. Megan Solomon, 7. Bex Wright, 8. Emma Hunter
Bedford Blues Replacements:
Hanah Donovan, Heather Cousins, Angita Scapini, Elena Famiglietti
