Dickson has no complaints with ‘boring’ winning rugby

A LAST-GASP penalty try gave Bedford a dramatic victory over Jersey and ensured their forward dominance did not go unrewarded.

That makes it two wins from two for the Blues but they came so close to being left kicking themselves after Conor Joyce’s try threatened to snatch victory for the Reds, against the run of play.

Bedford were repelled on several occasions from that point before finally securing victory when Graham Geldenhuys was penalised for dragging down a maul that looked destined for the try line.

Bedford captain Lee Dickson said: “I think it was just a scrappy game, all-round, a penalty fest.

“Our forwards were outstanding in the tight – the scrum and the line-out – and it gave us a massive platform, while the backs in patches showed some absolute brilliance to get us over the gain line.

“We played a little bit of ‘boring’ rugby there, but sometimes you’ve got to do that in this Championship and playing ‘boring’ rugby and getting five points is outstanding for us.”

Ed Coulson, standing in at 10 for the injured Will Hooley and Harry Sheppard, missed an early penalty for Bedford, who still went ahead after 14 minutes hooker Charlie Clare got the ball down after a rolling maul.

Brett Herron’s penalty put Jersey on the board and a superb long pass by the fly-half led to them taking the lead, with Auguy Slowik speeding through down the right.

Dickson quickly responded in kind, however, by flinging the ball left for Dean Adamson and there was no stopping the prolific winger.

After Herron missed a penalty for the Reds early in the second half, Clare extended the Blues’ lead with his second pushover try. Herron put Jersey back in the picture just before the hour mark with a brilliant solo try, which he converted.

The Reds then went ahead when captain Roy Godfrey sent Joyce clear to score but, after Jersey’s Sam Rodman was sinbinned, Bedford snatched victory at the death when Geldenhuys infringed and was also binned.

Jersey coach Harvey Biljon said: “I am a bit frustrated. I think we had to work really hard to get any reward today.

“When we did get opportunities to stay in front, we couldn’t hold on and there were five minutes where we just needed to get out of our half.”