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REPORT | Blues Women suffer home defeat
It was a chastening afternoon at Goldington Road as Bedford Blues Women well and truly handed Peterborough the ascendency in the title race with a shock 32-24 defeat on home soil to Stamford Women.
An uncharacteristic performance from Eddie Rennell’s side but having said that, don’t let it take away anything from Stamford who were fantastic on the day and really used their underdog mentality as an advantage to wrap up a bonus point victory.
It continued a weird sequence of the away side always winning this fixture; no home comforts to all intents and purposes when Bedford face Stamford clearly.
As with most games at this level, it only takes two or three inspired individual performances to create enough momentum and Stamford were spurred through things by their talismanic skipper, Gemma Alcoran as well as handy contributions from Jorja Matchwick and Daisy Attley.
Alcoran’s performance was actually more than just about her hat-trick, and a few overzealous tackles aside which on another day she may have been shown yellow, she was pretty much faultless marshalling her side from fly half.
For Bedford, it was a performance that relied a bit too much on moments, as opposed to the traditional 80-minute showing that we’ve become accustomed to seeing this season.
Claire Cranfield and Berri Clarke again looked like world beaters when with ball in hand and grass to eat up, but Stamford were clever and managed things well to ensure most of the game was played in central areas and didn’t allow Bedford to get things wide.
Cranfield’s second try in particular was one for the team highlight reel with a full effort to set the solid base of a scrum before unleashing a lovely sweeping offload move down the right-hand side.
A number of injuries and some stop-start patches of the game didn’t help Bedford’s cause but there were still the foundations of a good set piece, try saving tackles from Emma Graham and alike to write home about.
It’s not disastrous, far from it, and actually if Peterborough do now go on and, as expected, win the league then a season or more of consolidation at this level isn’t the worst idea before then trying to kick on to the next level.
The team will be disappointed but that’s more because their performance has been so high all season, that any blemish or sub-par showing is bound to cut deep.
An upcoming friendly against Olney (2nd Feb) gives them a quick chance to get back on the horse, by the time they return to league action three weeks later I’m sure they’ll be galloping along just nicely.
Bedford Blues Starting XV:
15. Emma Graham, 14. Claire Cranfield, 13. Alyce Trude, 12. Emma Hunter, 11. Claire Cranfield, 10. Lucy Middleton (C), 9. Laura Stephens; 1. Emily McBarron, 2. Kelly O’Flaherty, 3. Millie Rennell, 4. Catherine Chambers, 5. Kelly Hodgson, 6. Elena Famiglietti, 7. Megan Solomon, 8. Alivia Usher-Harris
Bedford Blues Replacements:
Steph-Sarah McPhillips, Lauren Mason, Hanah Donovan, Heather Cousins, Emily Wallbank, Gemma Cook, Berri Clarke
