REPORT | Blues seal home semi-final spot

Posted: 2nd May 2026
 

Bedford Blues secured themselves a home semi-final with a nail-biting 30-28 victory over Chinnor at Goldington Road, in one of the games of the season in Elior Champ Rugby.

Mike Rayer’s men came into the game knowing a bonus point victory would secure them second spot, and they duly delivered it by edging an arm wrestle against a Chinnor side who themselves pretty much wrapped up a spot in the post-season.

Blues Forwards Coach, Cameron Boon said: “A really good result, they dug deep and got the job done. This reward of a home semi-final is because of everything the boys have done this season.

“We had to be ruthless, Chinnor never go away. Our launch came off really well, every restart is an opportunity to attack teams, and I thought we did that with a solid structure.”

Chinnor had a lot of the ball throughout the contest, but Bedford were extremely hardworking in their defence to limit them to just one score in the first half, which happened to be the opener as James Bourton crashed over.

Fred Tuilagi quickly levelled the scores, before Dean Adamson was back to his old tricks to put Bedford in-front with another outrageous chip and chase. A penalty from Will Maisey gave the hosts a 15-7 lead at the break.

Inside 30 seconds of the second half, Tuilagi got his second after an intercept on halfway.

Chinnor were reduced to 14 when Thomas Watson saw yellow for a deliberate knock on, but Bedford couldn’t do anything with the advantage and lost a player themselves to the bin as Lucas Titherington was booked for repeat offences.

The visitors reduced the deficit when Watson returned, but couldn’t add anything else.

A try and a penalty from Will Maisey near the hour mark put Bedford well on course at 30-14 but Chinnor refused to give up and got the two points their performance deserved.

Luke Carter sniped quickly from a breakdown before Watson grabbed his second following an outrageous move down the infamous slope.

Player of the Match, Tuilagi added: “A massive day for the club to secure a home semi-final, it’s what we’ve been working towards all year. A huge effort, Chinnor always stick with it for 80 minutes and we had to grind it out.

“A real dog fight, which we expected so fair play to Chinnor. Proud to get over the line.”