One of the county’s newest community rugby teams returned to action on Saturday (10 October), travelling to Kettering to kick off the latest of their charity ‘Vets’ matches.
The Bedfordshire Barbarian Super Vets, set up in 2025 with the joint focus of raising money for a variety of charities and increasing participation in rugby for the retired players of yesteryear, faced off against their Northamptonshire counterparts.
The Northants Vets survived a late comeback to hold on 34-30, but with £125 raised for male suicide prevention charity, Andy’s Man Club, the day was a welcome return to social rugby, even if many players were left feeling the aftershocks for days to come.
£250 was also raised for the hosts’ charity at Kettering Rugby Club.
The first whistle was sounded, and with backs in short supply for Bedfordshire, the plan was obvious; keep it tight, let the forwards do the work and then release it to the makeshift back line to scythe through the opposition.
Northamptonshire took precisely two minutes to identify the flaw.
They ran the ball from their own half and dotted down unopposed under the sticks, leaving an easy conversion for the game’s opening score.
A second try followed shortly after, and in the blink of an eye, Northamptonshire were 26-0 ahead after four quickfire scores, leaving the Bedfordshire Vets to wonder if their Summer break had been a little too good.
An additional penalty took the score to 29-0 at half-time, and with 40 minutes left to play, it was looking as if the new boys were going to be giving the ‘seasoned’ Bedfordshire Barbarians a harsh lesson in Super Vets rugby.
The half-time discussion was brief, firm and allegedly “unsuitable for print”.
A change of tactics was agreed.
Six second half tries, but Barbarians fall short
With the wind now behind the Barbarians, they set about beginning their comeback.
Moments after the restart the ever reliable Andy Copley, usually of Bedford Swifts, duly picked the team up by executing a sniping run down the wing to dive over the whitewash.
Kempston’s Ian Course, not wanting to be outdone by the back line, decided he was going to show the forwards what could be achieved, taking at least two Northamptonshire players over the try line with him to reduce the deficit even further.
And when Course added a second moments later, the difference was just 14 points.
Northamptonshire bagged their final try of the game from a scrum, but Bedfordshire were not prepared to go down without a fight, with the score at 34-15.
The front row now wanted to make right their indiscretions at scrum time, and so they did, as Craig Donohoe was driven over from a five-metre lineout maul, bringing the score back to 34–20.
Not to be outdone, Tony Hazell broke through to reduce the deficit to nine points at 34-25, followed by Matt Aitkin, who crossed once more to close the account at 34–30 with an enterprising late run down the wing.
Northamptonshire held on for the triumph, but the Barbarians had scored six second half tries and came within four points of recovering from a 29-point deficit.
The Barbarians’ next game is due to be held at St. Albans RFC on Saturday, 14 November against Hertfordshire Super Vets.
If you are interested in playing for or supporting, you can email the team at BedsSuperVets@gmail.com and you can follow the team’s journey via their social media pages by searching ‘Bedfordshire Super Vets RFC’.
