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REPORT | Late heroics gift Bedford victory
Bedford Blues got their season back up and running with a vitally important bonus-point victory over Hartpury University.
A game from which anyone watching would sense a certain amount of injustice for the visitors who were much the better side for large majorities of the contest, and somehow came away from Goldington Road empty handed – not even a bonus point to show for their efforts.
Bedford’s Forwards Coach, Cameron Boon said: “Hartpury were really good and did a lot of things right. We let them in too often, but showed great resolve.
“Our penalty count was high but I think that’s trying to chase the game having fallen behind on the scoreboard pretty early on. But winning is a habit so it’s good to get one, and hopefully it kicks us on for the next few weeks.”
Bedford – who were hosting their charity Ladies Day celebrations – couldn’t have started much worse than to see their fly-half Tom Price sin binned after just 18 seconds for a head-on-head collision, and Hartpury capitalised through scores from Cai Gealy and Rhys Price.
Discipline was a problem for both sides at times and when Hartpury’s influential back row forward, Harry Short was sent to the naughty step for taking out the man off the ball, the numbers game again counted.
An intercept try from Robbie Smith and Harry Bazalgette’s penalty restored Hartpury’s lead to 10 points at the break.
Bedford were better, if not flattering, in the second half but were always behind on the scoreboard thanks to Bazalgette’s boot – tries from George Worth and Oisin Heffernan closing the gap to four points with eight minutes to go.
Staring down the barrel of a third successive defeat, Mike Rayer’s men found a new gear in the final moments to somehow snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and leave Hartpury shellshocked.
They deserved something but saw all their good work smashed into smithereens as Joey Conway put Bedford in-front with six to play. It wouldn’t be Ladies Day without Dean Adamson getting involved and he had the last say on the day to give Bedford a much-needed victory.
Player of the Match, Rory Ward added: “It was really tough, a physical battle. To go 14-0 down shows a lot of resilience from us all but we know all about our penalty count – we came out with a win and that’s all that matters really.”
