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REPORT | Outstanding Blues stun Worcester
Bedford Blues secured their first ever victory at Sixways Stadium to leapfrog Worcester Warriors into second position in the Elior Champ Rugby table thanks to a 28-14 victory.
Mike Rayer’s men were outstanding from the first whistle and mathematically ensured they’ll have a home fixture at Goldington Road in the play-offs, currently holding the ascendency for a spot straight through to the semi-finals but with the quarters already wrapped up.
A delighted Forwards Coach, Cameron Boon said: “Massively proud of the effort, the physicality from the boys was absolutely outstanding and they never gave up. They put everything into that performance and got their rewards.
“We like to play and move the ball around, but we knew against Worcester that we wouldn’t have the opportunity to do that unless the physicality was right. A full 80-minute buy in and everyone doing their job.”
It was an even start to the contest until Amena Caqusau intercepted a loose Worcester pass inside his own 22m to sprint clear and open the scoring after 19 minutes.
Blues were well in the groove after that and sent Alex Day – who was celebrating his 33rd birthday – under the sticks in-front of a delirious travelling support.
Worcester grew into things and halved the deficit for half-time as Hallam Chapman went over from close range after a sustained period of pressure.
The visitors were perhaps lucky to avoid a yellow card in that sequence leading up to the try but they certainly used the interval to better advantage to come out and grind through the gears.
Scrums were somewhat of a lottery in the first half, but Bedford found some dominance in that area to nullify a lot of what Worcester tried to do in attacking areas.
A well worked move for Dean Adamson was quickly cancelled out by a Will Trewin try around the hour mark.
Will Maisey missed a rare shot off the tee as Bedford tried to open a 10-point gap, but they continued to press home the physical advantage and were rewarded at the end with the bonus point score.
Two scrum penalties gave them the field position and Adamson scored his second to make it a record extending 170 tries for Bedford.
Alex Woolford added: “To get the double over Worcester is a great achievement. We wanted to put a marker down with this performance and I thought the boys were outstanding. To get five points is massive.”
*Matchday Photography from Claire Jones and Beth Walliker*
