French fires hat-trick to gets Blues over the line

BEDFORD completed a first ever league double over neighbours Ampthill thanks to wing Sean French’s late try at the Olney Field.

A topsy turvy contest, in which both sides led on three or more occasions, it required patience to edge the game as after French completed his hat-trick in the 78th minute, Blues had to defend through 23 phases before forcing the knock on.

French said: “This fixture has been built up to me throughout the week and it didn’t disappoint, Bedford is a special club. This means a lot to me, we made it hard for ourselves but managed to get more of a flow into our performance as we went through the game.”

Bedford didn’t have it all their own way and were 15-0 down after 20 minutes following a disastrous start which saw Ampthill have all the territory and score twice through Matt Gallagher and Lewis Finlay.

Both sides were reduced to 14 after a scuffle, then Blues went down to 13 as Tui Uru received the game’s third yellow card after tackling from an offside position.

That seemed to reinvigorate Bedford, however, who scored twice through French to leave it 15-12 at the break.

A superb team score for the second right on the stroke of half time, started by a quick tap from Will Maisey inside his own 22m, will be a contender for Try of the Season and featured a stunning cameo from Dean Adamson to set it in motion.

The second half was

more about a game of swings and roundabouts with both sides responding whenever the other scored to leave a frantic finale in-front of what was a record ever attendance for an Ampthill first-team fixture.

But it was the visitors smiling at the final whistle as French’s try, after some patient play from Michael Le Bourgeois, saw Bedford wrap up fourth place.

Bedford director of rugby Mike Rayer said: “Massive relief that we’ve won but the performance was pretty poor. Ampthill out-passioned us for most of the game, it was only a few moments of individual brilliance that got us across the line.

“We had to show a lot of character. We’ve guaranteed fourth and the lads will dust themselves down for Coventry next week.”