Fast starting Hartpury suffered a tough day at the office away at Bedford, seeing an early lead slip away against the rampant Blues.
Hartpury scrum-half Mike Austin, and inside-centre Tommy Mathews both crossed the try line and talisman Harry Bazalgette got himself on the scoresheet – but the quality of Bedford’s backs in the loose was the university side’s undoing.
Hartpury director of rugby John Barnes said: “I’m extremely disappointed, we started very well with two tries, but then made some real simple errors which allowed Bedford back into the game.
“Fair play, if you give Bedford of all teams a chance, they are going to take it. But I thought we might fight back in the second-half, get some control back in the game and we could go ok, but it was extremely poor from us, and it’s something we’ll need to look at moving forward.
“A small positive was how we started the game, we had good control of the game early on, had territory, and played in the right areas and in the right way while our set-piece was decent.
“But we made a few kicking errors, cleared our lines but it gave Bedford a chance to run with the ball. But if you give Bedford loose balls and concede penalties then you will suffer, and that’s what happened.
“To fall away as we did in the second-half was disappointing, and some of our players need to take a long hard look at themselves before next week.”
After Biggleswade Sea Cadet Marching Band’s rendition of The Lost Post rung out under the Autumn sun at Goldington Road, it was Hartpury who started the stronger, and the red-shirts got deep into Bedford’s 22-metre area before a quick line-out five-metres from the try-line went short to scrum-half Mike Austin, who scrambled over in the corner.
Six minutes later, Hartpury’s inside-centre Tommy Mathews ran a fantastic line to skirt Blues skipper Alex Day and dot down under the posts.
From the quarter-mark the home-side fought back, winger Dean Adamson put opposite number Brad Denty into a spin to set up a two-on-one against Hartpury fullback Ioan Jones, with scrum-half Day sliding over.
Blues’ player-coach Michael Le Bourgeois had a try chalked off for a forward pass – but the home-side gathered Austin’s box-kick from the re-start quickly, and some fast passes to the right led to wing Sean French muscling over in the corner.
Bedford’s purple-patch before half-time was pivotal, Adamson gave Denty a headache once-more as he put the afterburners on to leave his opposite number tasting grass, before getting the better of Jones to dot down.
A high tackle against Hartpury led to Bedford playmaker Louis Grimoldby booting over another three points from the 22-metre line just before the break.
With the home-side now have the ground’s famous slope in their favour, they picked up where they left off in the second-half, and a few phases from a quick line-out 10-metres out, lock Jordan Onojaife powered over Hartpury No.8 Jarrard Hayler just right off the posts to grab Bedford’s try bonus-point.
Bedford kept the pressure on, and pulled Hartpury’s defence narrow before a long looping pass from replacement pivot Will Maisey found Adamson on the wing as he grabbed his second.
Bedford’s scoreboard appetite never relented, replacement loosehead Joey Conway emerged under a pile of bodies as he scored on the hour-mark.
Some great phase-play led to an Adamson 25-metre run in on the left for his hat-trick, and Conway muscled over ex-Jersey flanker Josh Gray in the final play for Blues’ eighth try.
Blues’ hat-trick hero Dean Adamson said: “I’m delighted, and it’s definitely pleasing if I’m scoring as we’re playing that Bedford Blues-brand of rugby. We put on a show; we talked about it in the week, about moving the ball into the wider channels, stretching defences. So it’s really good, and to concede zero points in the second-half.
“It was a bit of a slow start in the first 20 minutes, but moving forward was very good. Hartpury are a good team, play with great width, so it’s really good to get the win, and it gives us a great platform looking ahead.”
Stats:
Bedford Blues:
Penalties conceded: 6
Line-outs won: 9
Line-outs lost: 0
Scrums won: 8
Scrums lost: 1
Sin-bins/Reds: 0/0
Hartpury:
Penalties conceded: 9
Line-outs won: 7
Line-outs lost: 1
Scrums won: 4
Scrums lost: 1
Sin-bins/Reds: 0/0
Bedford Blues 53 Hartpury 12
Bedford Blues:
Tries: Day 21, French 31, Adamson 34, 56, 69, Onojaife 43, Conway 60, 79
Conversions: Grimoldby 32, 35, Maisey 57, 61, 80
Penalties: Grimoldby 39
Hartpury:
Tries: Austin 8, Mathews 14
Conversions: Bazalgette 15
Penalties:
Team line-ups (15-9, 1-8):
Bedford Blues: Worley 7, French 6, Le Bourgeois 8, Venter 6 (Elliott 61, 5), Adamson 9, Grimoldby 6 (Maisey 51, 5.5), Day (c) 7 (McParland 61, 5); Jack 5 (Conway 48, 6), Fish 6 (Wright 61, 5), Heffernan 5.5 (O’Connor 48, 5), Onojaife 7 (Williams 57, 5), Woolford 6, Frost 6, Howard 7, King 7 (Arthur 57, 5)
Not used: N/A
Hartpury: Jones 4.5, Denty 4, Smith 5, Mathews 7, Reeves 5 (Johnson 51, 5), Bazalgette 6.5 (Worsley 56, 5), Austin 6 (Lennon 70, 4.5); McArthur 5 (Summerfield 51, 4), Crane (c) 6 (F Davies, 62, 4), Rees 5 (Benz-Saloman 40, 4), Lemon 5 (Owen 48, 5), J Davies 5, Lewis 5, Short 5 (Gray 40, 5), Hayler 6
Not used: N/A
Referee: Alex Thomas
Attendance: 2,414
Half-time: 22 – 12 (to Bedford Blues)
Star man: Dean Adamson (Bedford Blues) / Tommy Mathews (Hartpury)
