Bedford Blues 35 – 32 Hartpury RFC
Slope helps secure Bedford late win over Hartpury
By Tom Johnson, at Goldington Road
Hartpury saw their hopes of a famous win in the East Midlands slip away as a late Bedford Blues surge finished the game 35-32 to the home-side.
In a tightly contested game, a strong Hartpury showing was undone in the final few minutes, as Bedford used Goldington Road’s notorious slope to good effect for replacement Joel Matavesi to score the winning try.
Hartpury led for the majority of the game, constantly adding to their tally but Bedford’s second-half pitch advantage - playing down the slope – bore fruit over the last quarter.
Hartpury fly-half Harry Bazalgette said: “They were clinical and took their opportunities. If you look at the end there our discipline let us down. But fair play to Bedford, every time they made a line break inside our 22 they converted.
“Arguably we should have gone into the break with a little bit more of a buffer than we did. It was always going to be tough in the second half with Bedford going down the slope, we know their notorious doing that in the second half as it is.”
The first half saw some of the most action-packed Championship rugby of the season.
Hartpury opened the scoring with a brilliant early break down their right wing which saw Bedford scramble back and give away a penalty. Bedford were able to reclaim the ball from the line out and clear their lines but Hartpury came back strong freeing up Harry Short on the other wing for an easy try.
Minutes later and Short had another chance for an easy stroll over the line but for an overthrow.
Within 15 minutes of the game starting and the score was tie again as Lucas Titherington completed a strong drive down the middle for Bedford.
Hartpury didn’t give Bedford a moment to take stock of their successful comeback retaliating again down the left wing, where they had noticed a mismatch. This time it was Ollie Holiday who crashed over the line.
Bazalgette converted again from way out on the touch line to put Hartpury ahead 7-14 within 20 minutes.
Again, Bedford were not keen to stay behind for too long and pushed hard to tie the scores. A juggled line out led to a couple of diverted runs and they were again over the line.
Moments later a successful scrum from Bedford inside their own 22 and a miraculous pitch long run nearly saw the Blues take their first lead of the game. Luckily a back tracking Hartpury was able to pick the ball up from a misplaced kick.
Hartpury were able to score again with Aristot Benz-Salomon but the conversion was missed. Almost immediately Bedford broke down the middle from kickoff and pushed over the line. Hartpury seemed to be still celebrating going ahead but after Maisey was able to convert they found themselves behind 21-19.
They didn’t find themselves behind for long as on the 40th minute mark Robbie Smith was able to glide over the line untouched from an impressive play from the Hartpury backs putting them ahead 21-26 before the teams broke for the half.
Hartpury started the second half where they left off with Bazalgette converting a penalty kick within five minutes of the restart.
From there on they struggled to point many more points on the board, not without clear cut chances that were squandered. Something that cannot be said for Bedford.
Just before the 60-minute mark, Joe Howard was able to push over the line to put the game within one point. While Hartpury did push ahead again with another penalty kick, their four-point lead wasn’t enough to stop the nerves from setting in.
Bedford were able to get over the line shortly after but the referee pulled it back stating that the scoring player rolled over the line.
Then, with two minutes to go, Bedford executed a clinical, fast-paced move to take the lead with a try from Joel Matavesi.
Hartpury head coach Mark Cornwell said: “We created a lot of opportunities in that game. The thing for me is until we clean our act up, stop making the errors we make and stop giving the penalties away that we are, then we’re not going to come to places like Bedford and win.
“We showed some good stuff, we showed that we wanted to come here and express ourselves, play some good rugby - which we did at times - but there’s just an element of control that we’re missing.”
Stats:
Bedford Blues:
Penalties conceded: 6
Line-outs won: 7
Line-outs lost: 3
Scrums won: 6
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bin/red: 0/0
Hartpury RFC:
Penalties conceded: 8
Line-outs won: 9
Line-outs lost: 0
Scrums won: 6
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bin/red: 0/0
Bedford Blues
Tries: Lucas Titherington 13, Alexander Day 24, 36, Joe Howard 58, Joel Matavesi 76
Conversions: William Maisey 14, 25, 37, 59, 77
Penalties:
Drop goals:
Hartpury RFC
Tries: Harry Short 4, Oliver Holliday 18, Aristot Benz-Salomon 34, Robert Smith 40
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 4, 18, 40
Penalties: Harry Bazalgette 44, 61
Drop goals:
Team line-ups (15-9;1-8):
Bedford Blues: Louis James, Toby Cousins (Matthew Worley 54), Lucas Titherington (Joel Matavesi 57), Michael Le Bourgeois, Alfie Garside, William Maisey, Alexander Day ©: James Jack (Joseph Conway 45), James Daniel Fish (Daniel Langdon 50), Oisin Heffernan (Beltus Nonleh 54), George Smith (Archie Benson 59), Shay Kerry (Joe Howard 50), Luke Frost, Jac Arthur, Fynlay Brown
Not used: James Lennon
Hartpury RFC: Alex Morgan, Alex Forrester (Bradley Denty 54), Josiah Edwards-Giraud, Robert Smith (Rory Taylor 57), Oliver Holliday, Harry Bazalgette, Michael Austin (Kyle McGhie 71): Aristot Benz-Solomon (Archie McArthur 60), William Crane © (Ethan Hunt 54), Jonathan Benz-Salomon (Alexander Gibson 68), Dale Lemon (Cameron Cobbett 74), Jack Davies, Samuel Lewis, Harry Short (Tom Cowan 60), Jarrard Hayler
Not used: N/A
Attendance: 2,265
Referee: Hamish Grant
Half-time: 21 – 26 (to Hartpury)
Star players: Fyn Brown (Bedford) / Dale Lemon (Hartpury)
