Bedford Blues regained second place in Champ Rugby thanks to a hard fought and gutsy maximum point 23-19 triumph against Caldy in round 19 of Champ Rugby on Saturday (28 February).
All of Bedford’s tries came in an entertaining first half courtesy of Ilan Evans, George Worth, Fred Tuilagi and Joey Conway, while Will Maisey’s second half penalty was enough to give the Blues some breathing space in what was a frantic finish.
Bedford return to second in Champ Rugby after their 13th win of the campaign, and aided by a shock 22-7 loss for Worcester Warriors at Nottingham on Friday night, who handed the initiative back to Mike Rayer’s men after rising to second themselves in the last round.
The weekend’s action took place off the backdrop of an unsurprising announcement made by the RFU on Friday, where they declared promotion and relegation would be scrapped in the professional game from the 2026/27 season.
With the Champ Rugby play-off picture shaping up nicely, most fans of Champ Rugby sides – bar perhaps Worcester – know that actual promotion to the top tier is already off limits.
But with the business end of the campaign approaching, the Blues look well set for a spot in the season ending play-offs regardless.
A flurry of early points
For the men on the pitch, focus was solely on an always tricky encounter against Caldy, and they managed to escape Merseyside with a valuable win after the majority of the points were scored in the first half.
The hosts started the best and took the lead after eight minutes.
A neat kick from Kieran Wilkinson found Rhys Tudor for the game’s opening score, while Rory Ward was sin-binned for his illegal defensive efforts in the build up.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Blues hit back just two minutes later, as Ilan Evans continued his purple patch to level the try scoring count, and by the quarter hour mark, Bedford were ahead.
The move was kicked off thanks to excellent work from Alex Day, who broke clear and pulled off an incredible reverse offload to Joey Conway, who in turn offloaded to George Worth to finish with aplomb in the corner.
But within 90 seconds, Caldy were back ahead as a kick was charged down, with Michael Barlow the beneficiary.
It looked to be turning into a high-scoring yo-yo affair, and when Fred Tuilagi tapped a penalty to crash over the line, the scoreboard kept increasing at a rate of knots.
Man of the match, Conway scored the bonus point try on 26 minutes to grab the initiative back for Bedford, and it would be enough to keep Caldy at bay for the rest of the encounter, with the Blues heading into the sheds with a 20-14 half time advantage.
Defensive verve keep Blues ahead
The second half was not as eventful as the first, with just the one try scored, but it was Bedford who extended their lead thanks to a Maisey penalty on 53 minutes, extending his side’s lead to nine points.
That advantage was cut to four when Matt Gallagher dotted down at the bottom of an ugly looking maul on the hour mark, but it was a mammoth defensive effort that kept the Blues ahead at the final whistle.
Caldy ended the game how they started; on the front foot and looking dangerous, but a mixture of mistakes and defensive brutality from the Blues kept the hosts at bay.
Bedford were almost the architects of their own downfall, with a high tackle amongst the plethora of penalties given late on for Caldy, but they could not capitalise and the game was brought to an end after more excellent defensive work from replacement, Joe Hill.
It capped a maximum point victory for the Blues, who rise to second with 71 points, while Caldy remain 10th after picking up a losing bonus point.
Elsewhere, Ealing continued their 100% record with a 29-7 victory at Doncaster Knights, while Coventry consolidated fourth with a 40-36 win at Ampthill. Hartpury remain fifth despite a 7-7 draw at home to Richmond on Friday night.
Cornish Pirates are the latest team to climb into the sixth and final play-off spot after beating bottom club, Cambridge while Chinnor dropped down to eighth after a narrow defeat at London Scottish.
The division now takes a three week break, with Bedford Blues next back in action on Saturday, 21 March as they welcome a resurgent Nottingham to Goldington Road.
