Bedford Athletic were well beaten 48-24 by Harpenden at home on Saturday, in a match which was crucial for the outcome of their season against a team in the relegation zone and one place below them in the league.
The Ath showed neither the aptitude nor the composure necessary for the occasion and went down by seven tries to three.
Early penalties were conceded by the home side and this meant Harpenden had an early foothold in the game.
They fashioned the first chance when a kick and chase down the right wing was just won by the home full back, Josh Foster for a goal line drop out.
Harpenden kept up the pressure from the restart and their pace of play was eventually too much for the home defence as flanker Conor Underwood scored the opening try down the left wing on 12 minutes.
Bedford Athletic responded and from a line out, Leo Mortimer and Josh Dunne combined to put Foster into space and although he was brought down short of the line, a ricochet fell to Lewis Sharp who crossed for a try converted by Leo Mortimer.
Immediately from the kick off, Bedford Athletic let the ball bounce and the visiting wing Dan James picked up and ran in unopposed to regain the lead, with Luke Boynes’ conversion making it 12-7.
Bedford Athletic were struggling to cope with the pace of the visitors’ attack and in response, when they had possession, they panicked, were error strewn and often threw passes to no-one or knocked the ball on.
They also conceded penalties and from one of these, Harpenden kicked into the corner and set up a driving maul which led to a third try for visiting hooker Kian Middleton, converted by Boynes on 26 minutes.
Leo Mortimer kicked a penalty for the home side in response.
Chances did come the way of the home side but they snatched at them, constantly looking for the killer play or the wide miss
pass instead of building with patience and protecting possession.
When they did finally break through the visiting defence, the lack of composure continued with Ryan Taylor knocking on
over the line in the act of scoring.
From an attacking midfield scrum, the ball was inexplicably thrown to no one in particular, the visiting scrum half pounced, and won the race to touch down the fourth and bonus point try which with Boynes’ conversion gave Harpenden a 26-10 half time lead.
Late Ath tries paper over the cracks
The contest was quickly over at the start of the second half as George Attfield dived over for a fifth try for Harpenden before Tom Barton shrugged off a couple of tackles and was then allowed to run 80 metres for another.
When Bedford Athletic did attack, their lack of composure was summed up by Will Tinley failing to break the final tackle and then throwing a wild pass which was intercepted nearly leading to a try at the other end of the field.
Harpenden consolidated the lead with a penalty on the hour mark through Adams before Bedford Athletic fashioned a couple of belated scores.
A penalty led to a line out catch and drive and then a 5 metre scrum from which debutant wing Alex Edun dived over in the
corner.
Minutes later, Nick Thomas broke through from a set piece lineout move to score a third try, both were converted by Mortimer but when another Bedford Athletic attack broke down, Harpenden were able to run 60 metres to score a seventh try through winger Matt Shaw.
Bedford Athletic nearly fashioned an undeserved bonus point try at the death but Josh Foster was held up over the line.
The defeat leaves the side second from bottom in Regional South East Division One and three points from safety before their trip to Old Northamptonians this Saturday 16 November.
Words by Jeremy Tyrrell
