Bedford Blues bounced back from a harrowing defeat at Doncaster Knights with a dominant 54-26 triumph against struggling London Scottish under the floodlights at Goldington Road on Friday night (20 February).
Eight tries helped the Blues to a maximum point win that sees them up to second in Champ Rugby ahead of the rest of the league schedule on Saturday, while Scottish remain embroiled in a relegation dogfight towards the bottom of the second tier.
Both sides were looking to bounce back from heavy defeats in round 17 of Champ Rugby, as the Blues’ Castle Park curse continued to hit hard after losing 50-12 to Doncaster Knights, while Scottish conceded 66 points in a home loss against Worcester.
Read: Bedford Blues humbled by Doncaster as Castle Park curse continues
The Blues fell to third in the division as a result, handing the initiative of achieving an automatic semi-final play-off spot to the Warriors with nine league games remaining, but Mike Rayer’s side bounced back in clinical style on what was the final Friday night lights of the season at Goldington Road.
Rapid start for Bedford
In this fixture last season, Dean Adamson broke the Blues’ all-time leading try scoring record with one of nine tries as part of a 61-38 triumph, and after the first quarter, the clash looked to be heading in a similar direction.
It took just four minutes for the winger to add to his burgeoning tally in Blues colours, announcing his return from a three-week injury layoff in the best possible way, by bursting through the centre to touch down the simplest of scores.
Read: Adamson breaks try record as Bedford Blues trounce London Scottish
The advantage was doubled in equally easy fashion before the ten minute mark, as the Blues’ opposite winger, Ryan Hutler broke clear from a set of lacklustre tackles to run in under the posts.
An injury for Scottish centre Robbie McCallum merely compounded the early misery for the visitors, and when the Blues emphatically broke clear for a third time, it was left to blood replacement, Joey Conway to run in a stunning third try on 12 minutes.
The bonus point was wrapped up before the first quarter; Louis James sprinted through another gaping chasm in the Scottish defence before feeding James Lennon for another score under the posts, as Bedford opened up a 28-0 lead.
Scottish got on the board soon after with a try for Noah Ferdinand, but their defence continued to leak opportunities and only a knock-on on the try line denied Bedford a fifth almost directly from the kick-off.
The remainder of the half became scrappy, with misplaced passes dominating, but Scottish threatened to make a game of it as Theo Vukasinovic finished a move with a Chris Ashton-style dive for the visitors’ second, only for their defensive frailties to strike back.
Lennon was the beneficiary as Adamson unselfishly passed inside, gifting the scrum half his second try of the game, and when Will Maisey pinged across his fifth conversion from five, the Blues led 35-12 at the break.
Injuries damage Scottish chances
In their defence, Scottish were not aided by a consistent stream of injuries.
McCallum’s early exit was a hammer blow, and he was joined on the physio’s table by winger Guy Rogers in the first half, and when Lewis Barrett was forced off in the early stages of the second, it felt like the world was against the Londoners.
Bedford, not keen on showing any mercy, once again started the half on the front foot, with Lennon narrowly denied a hat trick on 44 minutes, before Maisey knocked an inventive pass from Titherington forward with teammates queuing up.
It took just five more minutes for the sixth score to arrive, as Ilan Evans bundled over the ugliest try of the night, before Jake Spurway became the fourth Scottish injury casualty of the evening.
It was beginning to look like the visitors’ only hopes of taking anything back to the capital would be via the bonus points system, and when Matt Wilkinson crashed over a third score, they were within touching distance of a point for four tries.
Any faint hopes of a comeback were put to bed on the hour, with replacement hooker Tommy Herman touching down a seventh for the Blues, while another replacement in Billy Pasco scored an eighth off the back of a penalty that saw Vukasinovic sin-binned.
It took the Blues past the 50-point mark, but the final play of the game saw London Scottish pick up their bonus point with a penalty try – a point that could prove vital in their relegation battle.
For the Blues, it represents a fine comeback from a harsh disappointment in South Yorkshire, and they will look to push on with victory next Saturday (28 February) as they travel to Merseyside to face Caldy.
Elsewhere on Friday night, Doncaster continued their resurgence with a 36-19 win at Chinnor, while Cambridge’s slide towards National One continued with their 17th loss in 18 games against Richmond.
The rest of Champ Rugby play across staggered kick off times on Saturday.
