Former Hawk Rory Mackay continues to make progess in England

Fans may be happy - Rayer's not
BY MIKE GREEN, Beds on Sunday
BEDFORD BLUES 23 NORTHAMPTON SAINTS 34

Blues supporters were probably happy with this performance against champions elect Northampton. Coach Mike Rayer was not.

"You can't fault the boys for effort but we have lost another game, you can't lose sight of that," he said.

"Had we scored when we had them under a lot of pressure at the start of the second half, it might have been different, but Northampton are a good side and punished every mistake we made."

Northampton won because they had flair and quality in abundance in their backs - hardly surprising when you think the salaries of Carlos Spencer and Bruce Reihana would use up Bedford's total budget for the playing staff.

The Blues more than matched the Saints upfront, despite losing Matt Volland after only ten minutes.

Dan Cole, Dan Richmond, Marco Cecere, Jon Phillips and Mouritz Botha were fully fired up and it was a pity that the ball that was provided was a little too slow, even for the effervescent Karl Dickson to make full use of it, When the Saints had the ball, they always looked like scoring. Spencer may be a bit of a show pony, but he can certainly play.

Bedford also had their moments outside the scrum with Craig Moir rolling back the years even though these days he tends to try to go through his opposite number rather than do him for pace.

Ben Patston, restored at fly half in place of Jon Elrick, clearly relished the opportunity to play against his old club and Alex Page, like fellow wing Moir, got on the scoresheet.

The Bedford forwards certainly gave Northampton plenty to think about from the start, The Saints struggled at scrums, twice being penalised by the referee and being wheeled on another occasion. And when Northampton tried to set up a drive after putting a penalty into the corner, they were easily repelled.

Patson's kicking was also effective and when Strauss regained possession from one mighty up and under and Burke carried on the move, Bedford got to within five yards of the line.

A penalty by Everitt gave the Saints the lead after seven minutes but the Blues were on terms again within another three. Another Patston high kick, followed by a crunching tackle from the same player and Saints were penalised for not releasing. Patston completed his good work by knocking over the penalty.

But this was a close as it got for the Blues. The big guns in the Northampton backs suddenly began to fire with Spencer being involved three times in a magical move which ended with Downey putting in Hopley.

Another try soon followed. Hooker Ward took advantage of a skirmish involving Phillips and two Northampton players five yards in to skip along the touch line to score.

Patston's second penalty brought some relief but it wasn't long before the Saints scored a third try. This time it was an old-fashioned move, the ball being worked swiftly along the line from a line out to give Reihana the space to go over. Everitt's third successful conversion made it 24-6.

Bedford were certainly not ready to lie down though and they brought the full house Goldington Road crowd to their feet with a fine try of their own.

It was Patston who made the break and Moir who finished things off between the posts. Patston's conversion meant it was 24-13 at the interval.

It was a lot to expect Bedford to make up this sort of half-time deficit although one did think back to the second-half comeback against Harlequins a couple of seasons ago. And they certainly gave it a go.

They camped in the Northampton 22 with their forwards in charge, They even chose a scrum instead of a kick when awarded a penalty, so much did they fancy their chances up front. Everitt was sinbinned as the Saints became increasingly rattled, but all Bedford had to show for their efforts was another penalty by Patston.

And this was promptly cancelled out by one for Northanpton by Reihana, taking over the kicking responsibilities in the temporary absence of Everitt.

Having survived 30 minutes unscathed, Northampton came back into it as Bedford tired despite the introduction of fresh legs in Sammons, Comb and Mundy.

Gaps started to appear and Downey went through one of them to score, although judging by the angry gestures some Bedford players gave the touch judge, they believed the final pass to have been forward.

The gap between the two sides was never really 18 points though, and it was Bedford who deservedly came up with the final score, Page going over in the corner. Elrick, on for Patston, landed a fine conversion, but it was not enough to earn the Blues a bonus point.

Scorers. Bedford: Tries - Moir, Page; cons - Patston, Elrick; pens - Patston (3). Northampton: Tries - Hopley, Ward, Reihana, Downey; cons - Everitt (4); pens - Everitt, Reihana.

Bedford: Burke, Moir, Roberts, Allen, Page, Patston (Elrick), Dickson, Volland (Cecere), Rickmond (Sammons), Cole, Phillips, Botha (Comb), Strauss, Harding (Mundy), McKay (Pienaar).

Attendance: 5,307.

This article was originally posted on 25-Sep-2007, 14:14 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 25-Sep-2007, 14:23.