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REPORT | Blues brave in battle but fall to defeat
Bedford Blues put in a much improved performance, but it still wasn’t enough on the scoreboard as they fell to a 35-30 defeat at old rivals, Coventry.
Definitely a case of what could have been as Mike Rayer’s men had the game in their grasps for large periods of it, but were ultimately made to pay for too many mistakes and errors as Coventry kept the scoreboard ticking.
Not being able to capitalise when Coventry were reduced to 14 men for 20 minutes due to Sam Maunder’s red card, was a big opportunity missed in the course of the contest.
When the dust settles, and frustrations from losing a second successive game to start the season are put to bed, there will be a lot of positives. Always tough to find them in the immediate aftermath, when emotion and feeling is so raw.
To continue one of the themes from the league opener, again Bedford improved on their result compared to 12 months ago. Gaining two points is two more than last year, so a net gain of three across the two games.
But at some point the team has to start winning or risk being cut adrift in the early weeks of the season. It was always accepted that this was a particularly tough start to the season, Bedford’s record at Butts Park Arena indicates how tough a place it is to go, but results need to start rolling in.
Hartpury are flying into next week’s Ladies Day at Goldington Road off the back of a first ever victory away at Cornish Pirates and a shock victory over Worcester Warriors.
In this one, it was a case of Groundhog Day. Doing so much so well, but always error strewn and conceding points at volume in the times when they were slipping off the pace. Coventry were clinical enough to constantly capitalise on the opportunities – their influential fly half, Josh Thomas scoring one himself and adding a whole host of points from the tee.
At the other end, Dean Adamson put in an early contender for Try of the Season with one of the most outrageous individual tries he’ll ever score. He might be on 154 for the club, but you could count on one hand the number better than this one.
Rory Ward’s purple patch of form continued, while Nicholas Finch and Oisin Heffernan also crossed to make sure they’d get a try bonus point for the second successive week.
A tough one to take, because they were so good for so long. One that slipped away but make no bones about it, the team will be back fighting again next week on Ladies Day.
Bedford have a proud record on one of the best dates in the calendar and need your support to get back to winning ways. Buy your tickets here to cheer on the team.
