Bedford Blues battled back from a 15-0 deficit to triumph 36-32 against Doncaster Knights at Goldington Road on Friday night, with a Dean Adamson brace among five Bedford tries that secured a third straight maximum point victory in Champ Rugby.
The Knights had not won at Goldington Road since 2017, and despite a bright start and a late surge, they could not break that streak as the Blues temporarily jump to fourth in English rugby’s second tier.
Both sides came into this clash in decent early season form having won twice in four games, with Darren Fearn’s Knights beating pre-season favourites Worcester Warriors last weekend while the Blues annihilated Ampthill, running in ten tries in the process.
Read: Ten try Blues demolish Ampthill to jump into play-off spots
Frightful mistakes blight early stages
The Knights were the first on the board after just four minutes after some considerable early pressure; Ryan Olowofela the man to sprint over the line with ease, and Russell Bennett converting.
Bennett added a penalty to take Doncaster into double digits, and it was almost a 15-point lead as a missed tackle on the Doncaster right wing allowed Semesa Rokodoguni to break, only to drop the ball in slippery conditions.
Come the 17-minute mark however, the try count had doubled and it came off the back of another Bedford fumble in good territory, allowing Doncaster to break with pace and giving Ollie Fox the opportunity to stroll in a simple score.
The grumbles of discontent around Goldington Road were palpable; the Blues’ numerous handling mistakes causing them to kick more than they characteristically would, with the bounce of the ball matching the early game pessimism.
Blues blitz
As quick as a flash though, that pessimism vanished amidst a sensational riposte that saw the Blues battle back with four tries in 14 minutes.
Bennett’s second attempt at a penalty bizarrely gave the home side their first real shot of getting on the scoreboard; his hit bouncing back off the post into the hands of Fred Tuilagi, who began the move that would eventually lead to Bedford’s opening try.
It took a few attempts at the line out to do it, but the ball worked its way back centre field and found man of the match, Dean Adamson who threaded the needle to dive over for his sixth try of the season.
A yellow card for Ehize Ehizode soon followed, as the lock deliberately knocked the ball out of James Lennon’s hands at the breakdown, and it was the scrum half who benefited from the resulting penalty, touching down to bring the score back to within a single point.
The next attack wielded a superb third try; Ryan Hutler, Michael Le Bourgeois and Adamson – who was having far more luck on the right wing – were again involved with fast hands, feeding Lucas Titherington who raced clear and had just enough momentum to take him over the whitewash.
It looked as if the Blues were heading into the interval with a six-point lead that looked improbable after the first quarter, but the Blues’ all-time try scorer had other ideas as Adamson collected the ball in a more familiar left wing position, running on to his own chip to bundle in the bonus point try.
Maisey missed the conversion with the final kick of the first half, but 26 unanswered points in an 14-minute burst from Bedford turned the game on its head, as Mike Rayer’s men led 26-15 at the break.
Knights fightback not enough
In what was an understated start to the second half amidst injuries and the referee’s whistle, it was Doncaster who struck first in the second period off the back of a momentous rolling maul, with hooker George Roberts gaining the final touch.
Both sides then traded glorious chances; Tui Uru’s break was brought to an agonising end by a tap tackle from a pink shirt, before the visitors broke up the other end, only for Morgan Jones to spill the ball forwards with the try line at his mercy.
For all of the second half scrappiness, it looked increasingly more likely that the Knights would pounce as they continued to apply pressure, and so it turned out as Russell Bennett’s excellent footwork ended in five points, converting his own try to put Doncaster back in front.
A Maisey penalty put Bedford back in the ascendency at 29-27 with fifteen minutes left on the Goldington Road clock, and it looked like a colossal defensive effort was about to ensue, before Ryan Hutler intercepted a pass just metres from his own try line.
The winger put on the after burners, and despite a valiant effort from a swiftly backtracking Zach Kerr, the Doncaster centre could not catch the Bedford man who sealed his 80-metre sprint with a critical try to extend the Blues’ lead to nine points.
It knocked the stuffing out of the Knights, and despite a 79th-minute score for Ben Chapman, it was too late to mount a final challenge as their winless run at Goldington Road extends to an eighth year, with the Blues claiming another maximum point 36-32 victory.
Successive wins over Hartpury, Ampthill and now Doncaster, plus the three bonus points picked up in losses against Ealing and Coventry, leave the Blues in a fine position after a bone-crunching October that show no signs of letting up in November.
Worcester Warriors were convincing victors over London Scottish in the other Friday night fixture, with the rest of the division playing in more traditional Saturday timeslots, but the next two Blues games are also on Friday nights heading into the eleventh month.
Rayer’s charges are back in action on Friday 7 November against London Scottish at the Richmond Athletic Ground, before welcoming Champ Rugby’s surprise package, Caldy to Goldington Road the following Friday night.
