London Welsh
Bedford v London Welsh - Match Preview
By Mark W-J
December 23 2009
London Welsh travel to Bedford’s Goldington Road on Boxing Day looking to record a first ever league double over the Blues. The meeting at ODP at the beginning of October saw Welsh win 28-17 but disappointed not to have claimed a try-scoring bonus point. Bedford have a record of one win and a draw in their last seven league games, but we know from bitter experience never to write the Blues off.
To most London Welshmen, Boxing Day is synonymous with Stradey Park. Although the game with Llanelli was a constant in the fixture list for over a century, it didn’t settle on this date until after the First World War, but while other matches – including Bedford on New Year’s Day – were regular features, our annual pilgrimage to Carmarthenshire was a highlight for both sets of supporters. The first meeting was actually on Christmas Eve 1886, the inaugural Christmas tour not having ventures so far west. In December 1885, just two months after the club’s first ever fixture, the Exiles travelled ‘home’ for the first time for a tour of four matches in six days.
The tour opener was at St. Helens where the home team were stunned by a margin of one goal and one try to two tries. Point scoring wasn’t introduced until the following season, and the objective was to kick goals – a ‘try’ merely earned the team the opportunity to try for goal, hence the somewhat old-fashioned term for a ‘goal’ actually meaning a converted try. The decisive kick at Swansea was converted by the legendary Arthur ‘Monkey’ Gould, who played against Welsh on Boxing Day at his native Newport. Although we scored three tries to one, all were unconverted; Newport scored two drop goals and claimed the victory. The next opponents were a strong South Wales XV, again at Newport two days later, and we achieved the first shut-out of our short history, winning by a goal and a try to nil. The tour finished at the Arms Park on December 30th, with Cardiff claiming the win by two tries to nil.
124 years on from that defeat at Newport, Welsh are still struggling to kick conversions. We’ve scored 36 tries in the 14 league matches to-date, but only 19 (52.8%) have been converted. Only Coventry, with 11 conversions of 27 tries (40.7%) have a worse conversion rate. Bedford have scored 40 tries and 29 conversions (72.5%), and next week’s opponents, Exeter, lead the way with 40 from 51 (78.4%).
Bedford have won only three league games since they visited us in round four, yet they still find themselves in 6th place in the table. They’ve claimed a losing bonus point from four of their seven defeats, but failed to take anything from London Welsh, Exeter and Bristol – so we’re in good company! The Blues have six wins and a draw to their name, but three of those wins came in the first three weeks of the season, and they’ve banked just three points since the league reconvened at the start of December. In the opening rounds they trounced both Coventry at home (42-6) and Plymouth away (38-3), yet were held 15-15 at Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena three weeks ago and lost 16-19 at home to Albion eight days later. Last Friday’s 37-16 defeat at home to Bristol saw Bedford drop to sixth behind Cornish Pirates, after Welsh had pushed them down to fifth place the previous weekend.
A Welsh win on Saturday would see Bedford suffer as many league defeats in 2009-10 as they recorded in the whole of 2008-09; while they’ve experienced three consecutive defeats on many occasions, you have to go back to April 2001 – their first season in National One following relegation from the Premiership - for the last time they went four games without a win in the league. Throughout January to March of that season they lost nine in a row, but arrested the slide with a 23-18 Easter win over the Exiles at Goldington Road; at the end of the season they finished 11th of 14, level on points with Moseley and just a single point clear of Otley and relegated Orrell.
Despite their current poor run of form, Bedford have conceded the fewest bonus points in the Championship so far – Bristol and Nottingham have each claimed the try bonus which narrowly eluded us, while only Rotherham have been defeated by seven or less (27-25 at Clifton Lane). Samoan flanker Paul Tupai – formerly with Northampton - is one of two players in the league who have spent three separate spells in the sin-bin, but Welsh are equal-worst offenders (with Birmingham Solihull) overall, with eight players having seen yellow. Current top scorer for the Blues – as he has been in each of his previous five seasons with the club - is Canadian full-back James Pritchard with 91, while leading try-scorer is winger Luke Fielden with six. Fielden joined from Cambridge in the summer having scored 24 tries in 22 starts last season; he opened his account with five in three games in September and October, including a brace at Old Deer Park, but has dotted-down just once in the Blues’ last eight league games.
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
Stumbleupon23/12/2009 13:03
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:12:26:15:10:02 by Blackheath Welsh.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:12:26:17:11:35 by NTF0.
Teams. Bedford: Pritchard, Fielden, Dorrian, Vass, Davey, Davies (Knight 72), Walshe, Walsh, Richmond, Boulton (Seal 55), Howard, Harlock (Rae 49), Gillanders (Harding 19), Goodman, Tupai (Brightwell 49). Not used: Locke, Chudley.
London Welsh: Thomas, Shabbo, Mackey, Whatling (Starling 72), Claassens, Ross, Runciman (Lewis 77), Holford, Buckland (George 61), Ward (Boot 75), Powell, Corker (Garvey 46), Mills, Mercer, Brown. Not used: Beach, Evans.
Attendance: 4033!!!.
Good write-up on the Bedford site.
More London Welsh headlines
- 1s and 2s Playing at ODP this Saturday
- Bumper Weekend of Matches for London Welsh
- Final Pre-season Match at Grasshoppers
- Tom May is London Welsh Backs Coach
- 1st XV Pre-Season Fixtures
- London Welsh Women Ready For Pre-Season
- London Welsh Women RFC Fixtures
- 2XV 'Druids' Fixtures
- 1st XV 2018/19 Fixtures