At this stage, points are probably not top of the list, more the performances, both as a team and individually, and Bees certainly impressed.

Bees would be well aware of the way that Bedford play: Solid defence, taking as many penalties as possible, but things hardly got off to a great start when a penalty was given away in front of the posts by the infringing Bees forwards. Ali Hepher slotted the three with ease.

Bees went right up the other end and managed to force a try through keeping the ball and creeping slowly up the field. Paul Knight eventually sneaked over under the posts and Tim Walsh added the extra two.

Eventually the Bees gave away another penalty which Hepher hit to make it 7-6 to Bees.

Bedford then had quite a strong attack and were camped in the Bees 22 for a number of minutes. Once again, Bees infringed a number of times to keep the Bedford advantages coming. Perhaps we were too eager in our tackling? After many phases Spencer Brown took advantage of an overlap to score in the corner. The resulting conversion actually missed by quite a bit as it faded right, but the touchjudges still managed to give the points.

Bees attacked along the right wing and Aaron Takarangi made a good break making it to the Bedford 22 before being tackled. He went to ground and within less than a second, the whistle was blown for holding onto the ball and Bedford were let off. They took a quick penalty and Ed Orgee tackled the ball carrier slightly high. He was subsequently given a yellow card which appeared to amaze both the Bees faithful and the captain himself.

Bees managed to get another stunning penalty through Tim Walsh just before the break to make it 13-13 at half time.

Bees had performed very well in the first half with some great tackling from Ben Gerry and Ben Hughes and some good ball carrying from Matt Miles and Martin O'Keefe. As well as a stronger defence, the Bees managed to keep hold of the ball for sustained periods and entered the Bedford 22 on regular occasions. Up to this point the referee, a certain Mr Llyr-Apgeraint Roberts had performed relatively well. Apart from the rather picky penalty and the slightly odd yellow card there was little wrong.

The second half started in a rather similar way with Ali Hepher hitting a penalty but for the rest of the match Bees had relatively long periods of attack. Some of the attacking was a lot better but the midfield still lacked imagination and we still managed to fail to score when huge overlaps beckoned. Perhaps there were too many people not running straight meaning that the wingers were left with virtually no space to work their magic.

Players such as Hese Fakatou, Paul and Dave Knight and Scotty Williams made some great runs and a lot of the ball carrying improved significantly. Matt Miles twice had to take some terrible passes and caught them well and still made yards. Rob Hurrell and Martin O'Keefe were also very important in attack. On the other hand Ed Orgee appeared to struggle with making the hard yards. Two or three times he ran towards the opponents, appeared to stutter and then got forced back and then turned over.

Also- quite often we were left with front row forwards in the back and although on the whole they managed quite well, a few times Andy LeChevalier got the ball and knocked it on.

Chev appeared to be the target of Mr Roberts whistle throughout the second half as time after time he was (wrongly in my very humble opinion) penalised for coming in from the side or diving over the top. Many of these decisions were very harsh on the Bees as Bedford appeared to kill the ball time after time slowing down the ball.

Offsides were regularly not noticed (or noticed by the touchjudge and then ignored) and forward passes from both sides were often missed.

Eventually this cost the Bees as Aaron Takarangi was tackled, a Bedford player raced in from the side (or even the back!) allowing another Bedford player to race the length of the pitch to take the score from 19-18 to 26-18. The touchjudge appeared to notice the offence and mentioned it through his mike, although Mr Roberts ignored the call. With just ten minutes to go, this would be a tough ask for a tiring Bees attack. The Bees bench were fuming with the decision to allow Bedford to score the try and this carried on on the pitch as a minor brawl broke out.

Bedford then scored a penalty to make the score 29-18 to the away side, once again giving Bees zero points.

This was a very improved performance as almost all of the team impressed individually although there is still a long way to go. With Coventry beating Exeter, perhaps we may be able to get something from our trip. Tickets are priced £15 including match ticket and are available from Trish.


Solihull 50-29 Worcester Wanderers

Solihull warmed up for their Powergen Vase match in a slightly hesistant manner but still scored 50 points playing some fine flowing rugby.

Tries were scored all round but one of the stunners was eventually ran in by Bomber Gallacher, but virtually every player in the team touched the ball.

The Solihull men probably had all right to keep their collective feet off the gas with the important game next week.

Probably a very good warm up.

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