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REPORT | Five point win on Ladies Day
Dean Adamson became the greatest try scorer in Championship history with a double in Bedford Blues’ victory over Doncaster Knights on Ladies Day at Goldington Road.
While we are waiting official confirmation of Adamson’s unbelievable achievement from league officials, our boffins behind the scenes have crunched the numbers and are confident that he scored his 104th and 105th Championship tries to leapfrog stalwart, Mark Bright in the overall standings since the rebrand of the league ahead of the 2009-10 season.
Reflecting on the momentous occasion, Adamson said: “It’s amazing. It’s my tenth year at Bedford, I remember scoring my first away at London Scottish and I didn’t think I’d be here now achieving that.
“It is a big achievement and I’m sure I’ll have a beer to celebrate. It’s a big thing for me and my family and incredibly proud to achieve it at home at Goldington Road, all my recent milestone achievements seem to come on Ladies Day.”
Mike Rayer’s side were out of the traps with intent and built up a 12-0 early thanks to Alfie Garside’s first in club colours, before Adamson profited from some outrageous footwork from flanker Jac Arthur to dive over for his first.
A solo try from Ollie Fox got Doncaster on the board as they started to turn the screw, both sides trading penalties for a 15-10 Bedford advantage at the break.
Doncaster took that momentum into the second half but couldn’t trouble the scoreboard more than a second penalty from Russell Bennett, and when they tried to open up, Matt Worley picked them off with an intercept try.
That shifted the tie back again into the home side’s favour with Adamson getting his second then Craig Wright got in on the act in his first Bedford appearance since lifting the U20s World Cup over the Summer.
Morgan Strong scored Doncaster’s second but they were unable to secure a bonus point as their long winless run at Goldington Road continues towards a decade.
Bedford Director of Rugby, Rayer added: “There was a lot of disruption losing Louis James early on, Michael Le Bourgeois shortly afterwards, and Ed Prowse at half-time. Fair play to the lads who came on, we had to show some character, and we did that.
“The scoreboard probably looks a bit flattering, but we’ll take five points at home all day long.
“Doncaster first-half, if they’d have caught a few balls, it would have been a problem because their shape caused us a lot of problems. We dodged a few bullets. On the other side of the coin, we looked controlled at times and took points when it really mattered.
“We knew we’d have to match Doncaster physically and our scrum and lineout were weapons. We did really well in those areas. “
Doncaster Head Coach, Joe Ford commented: “Bedford had a really fast start, and we had a poor one. We showed great fight to get back in it with a try and a couple of penalties. Around 60 minutes we started to get a real foothold in the game then threw an intercept that just deflated us.
“The story of the game was that we showed good fight but gifted Bedford too many points too easily. A team like that will run away with it, which they did.”
*Matchday Photogrpahy by Claire Jones, Kie Fewster & Simon Fraser*
