Bedford Athletic blew a 17-3 half-time lead to lose their key relegation battle 31-29 at Harpenden on Saturday (15 February), falling further from safety in RFU Regional South East Division One.
Having earnt a well-deserved 14-point lead at half time, a calamitous half hour in the second period saw them fall 31-17 behind before a late rally nearly earned a draw.
Bedford Athletic took the challenge to their opponents from the kick off, getting pacy winger Bradley McKenna into the match quickly and he ran through and past the home defence for the opening try from inside his own half.
Leo Mortimer added the conversion in the second minute.
Harpenden replied quickly with a penalty from outside centre Oli Johnson to narrow the gap, and then proceeded to dominate territory for the next half hour.
Bedford Athletic defended well, but when they had opportunities to clear the pressure they invariably made an error in possession which gifted the initiative back to the home side.
Harpenden were keen to deploy their rolling maul at any opportunity, but three times they drove hard at the visiting defence and three times they failed.
The first saw the ball knocked on at the base of the ruck, the second saw Lewis Sharp get under the attacker and hold him up over the try line and the third resulted in a penalty attempt from Johnson that went wide.
Having survived the pressure, Bedford Athletic had opportunities of their own.
Having turned over a home scrum, they exploited space with Leo Mortimer lifting his pass over the defenders to find Nick Tarr on the wing for the second try on the half hour mark, Mortimer again converting.
An attacking move from a lineout just failed to bring a third try with the ball knocked on under the posts, and then a further scrum penalty led to a kick at goal for Mortimer which he duly converted leaving Bedford Athletic 17-3 ahead at the break.
Sharp and Harpenden no.8 Jonny Ward were sent to the sin bin for a scuffle on the stroke of half time.
The second half started badly for the visiting side when Erran Singh-Soomal was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle.
This was the start of a string of penalties to the home side as the visitors found themselves without the ball and under pressure.
The favoured tactic of the home team continued to be the penalty kick to the corner, followed by the lineout catch and drive with a maul to the line.
Bedford Athletic gave them plenty of opportunities to execute it and this led to two tries inside five minutes courtesy of Jack Murphy and Ben Campion, both converted by Johnson to tie things up at 17 points apiece.
Blizzard of yellows give Ath a chance
When Johnson missed a penalty minutes later, things went from bad to worse for the home side as they failed to chase the 22 drop out with sufficient accuracy and Harpenden ran the ball back down the right wing for scrum half Adam Wilkinson to scythe through and score.
Johnson made it 24-17, and with twenty minutes to go Bedford Athletic’s lead had disappeared.
Penalties kept Harpenden on the front foot and their bonus point try arrived with another catch and drive from a lineout this time finished off by replacement prop Steven Mckenzie-Cardy.
Johnson’s conversion almost made the game safe for the home side at 31-17.
It took the visitors until the 26th minute of the second half to enter their opponents 22 in an attacking sense and then playing with a pace and urgency they started to make inroads.
Suddenly, without the ball it was Harpenden who were under pressure and conceding penalties, and second row Oliver Lacey was next in the sin bin for slowing down the ball at a tackle.
Bedford Athletic pressed hard for the line and the breakthrough came for prop Ryley Longmuir who crashed over by the posts with Mortimer’s conversion bringing the score to 31-24 with five minutes left to play.
Bedford Athletic attacked again, and two more Harpenden players went to the sin bin, the other second row Fraser Scott and centre Jimmy Spiers.
Against 12 men, the defence finally broke with Cameron Brough getting over in the corner for the fourth and bonus point try, but it was the last play of the game and Mortimer’s conversion kick to draw sailed wide.
The defeat leaves the team eleven points and a minimum of three wins from safety, with just four matches to play. The first of these at home to Old Northamptonians on 1 March at 3pm.
Words by Jeremy Tyrrell
