14-man Blues cling on after Curry sees red for punching

MIKE Rayer lamented a red card for flanker Ollie Curry following a brawl in Bedford’s win at Ampthill.

The Dillingham Park visitors scored six tries but were forced to hold on as Ampthill fought back with second-half tries from Alex Humfrey, Craig Duncan and Harvey Beaton with Blues a man down follow a punch before half-time.

Rayer said: “It was a silly sending off, not how we wanted it to go. It’s not ideal for a pre-season game but there was lots of other good stuff. We integrated lots of new players.

“Ampthill came out strongly in the second half and we were hanging on at the end.”

It took only two minutes for the first try, when Dani Long-Martinez – one of 12 Northampton Saints players at Bedford on the partnership deal – finished a scything move.

Ampthill responded with Cory Lewis touching down from a driving maul on his debut.

Bedford then broke against the run of play, with Pat Tapley finding a gap after 17 minutes.

The half got worse for Ampthill when scrum-half Jonny Hall was sin-binned for deliberate obstruction on the half-hour mark.

He was joined a minute later by back row teammate Austin Wallis – and Bedford No.8 Tui Uru found space for another try to lead 21-7 at the break.

The game was marred by a clash which saw Curry get a red card for throwing a punch before half-time and Rayer put out a whole new 14 in the second half.

Centres Oscar Hirskyj-Douglas and 18-year-old Ethan Grayson dotted down within four minutes of the restart.

There was also misery for Wasps loanee Cameron Anderson, forced off on a stretcher – two weeks ahead of Ampthill’s new season.

Ampthill’s man advantage started to show after the hour as debut flanker Humfrey finished two mauls five minutes apart.

Grayson added his second try with eight minutes to go to stretch Blues’ lead before Duncan scored for Ampthill.

Saracens loanee Beaton had the last word, finishing off a stunning Ampthill move to make it a three-point game in what was the last play of the game.

Ampthill boss Mark Lavery said: “When we were tight, we looked ok. When we were loose, we were loose as a goose!

“There were a whole heap of debuts, so we expected to be inaccurate. We didn’t play to our patterns in the first but when we did in the second, it made it more challenging.”