Le Bourgeois stars as Blues see off Yorkshire Carnegie
MICHAEL Le Bourgeois and Howard Packman both struck twice in Bedford’s impressive win over Yorkshire Carnegie, on a day where there two sets of winners.
The first were Bedford’s players, who scored six tries in what was an excellent performance that allowed them to move up to third in the table, leapfrogging their opponents.
The second were the legion of Blues supporters who helped clear snow off the pitch earlier in the day to allow the match to go ahead and their efforts were given the reward they deserved.
Bedford fly-half Will Hooley said: “I genuinely mean it when I say it’s unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Bedford’s not the biggest rugby club in the world, but I think today just shows the camaraderie of everyone in this town.
“For us, it was really important to get the result today - not just for our campaign, but also for the fans because what they did earlier was very special.”
It took Bedford just six minutes to open the scoring, as Elliot Clements-Hill did well to gather Lee Dickson’s pass before setting up his captain, Le Bourgeois, for a walk-in down the right.
Following a lengthy injury delay for Blues flanker Josh Buggea, Will Homer’s simple penalty pulled back three points for Yorkshire, but the hosts swiftly extended their advantage.
Packman was able to scamper clear unopposed after not being held by his would-be tackler before 6ft 11in lock Will CarrickSmith squeezed in at the corner for the Blues’ third try.
Yorkshire found a route back into the game just before half-time when Andy Forsyth got on the end of Callum Irvine’s smart grubber to dot the ball down, with Homer converting to bring the gap down to 17-10.
It took the visitors just over a minute of the second half to draw level, as Richard Beck went through a big gap before passing to Forsyth, whose off-load meant an easy finish near the posts for Stevie McColl.
Hooley’s penalty restored Bedford’s lead before the hosts scored their fourth try of the afternoon when Packman slid in for his second after being found by fellow wing Dean Adamson.
Adamson then got one for himself when McColl couldn’t deal with his kick ahead, allowing the Blues’ top scorer to pounce on the loose ball and score.
Jack Whetton pulled a try back for Yorkshire from close range, but it was Le Bourgeois who had the final say by crashing his way through the middle.
Yorkshire head coach James Lowes said: “We were poor out of the blocks in the first half and missed some pretty simple tackles and they took their chances really well.
“We fought our way back into the game and I thought we had some really good spells but there was a period with about 15-20 minutes to go where we just made some terrible schoolboy errors.
“It just allowed them to sit on our line and get back in control of the game.”