MOSELEY 0
BEDFORD BLUES 23
James Pritchard makes a break
Blues match-winner James Pritchard has called for the British & Irish Cup to be restructured in the light of Bedford’s elimination from the competition.
Even a third victory, a convincing two tries to nil win over limited Moseley, was not enough to guarantee Mike Rayer’s men passage into the knockout stages.
Blues have lost just two of their five Pool C matches but knew they could not make it through before they set out for Birmingham.
And Pritchard, who finished with 15 of his team’s points, says the format needs to be looked at with just the group winners qualifying for the semi-finals.
“I think it’s a great idea but there could be some more fine tuning to it,” the Canadian Test player said.
“Ultimately it’s a great idea because as a second tier we never really get the chance to play in anything like a Heineken Cup as the bigger clubs do.
“Although I was injured for the start of the campaign, it would have been good to go to Ulster.
“It’s great to test yourself against different opposition. When you are playing the Irish and Welsh teams, they all play a different style of rugby to the English National One teams.
“I thought maybe they could have done the top two for each group instead of the top one because it makes it more interesting for everyone else.
“Maybe the other teams would be fighting for a second place, that would really work, we’d all have something to fight for.
“But when there’s a team that’s dominant in the group there are so many dead rubbers.”
Not that it looked that way on Friday night as Blues took the game to the Billesley outfit.
No-one more so than Pritchard who scored a try and kicked two penalties and two conversions.
He also put in an incisive performance with his broken field running causing Moseley endless problems. And he wasn’t the only one. Luke Fielden bagged the other score and Myles Dorrian posed innumerable questions to the Mose backline with his distribution.
“It was a good effort,” Pritchard said. “We knew that they were not going to be easy, especially not up here on a Friday night.
“Every time we come up here we have to battle for our win, Friday was no different.
“With the play-offs coming up there are plenty of boys vying for contention so every game in the lead up to that is pretty much a trial match.
“The boys that pull on the shirt know they have to perform at 110 per cent because everyone wants to start and get a shot a getting into the Guinness Premiership. That’s what it comes down to.
“We have got one last game, Rotherham next week, to fine tune for the run-in to the finals. Grounds are starting to harden up, the weather’s starting to get better and that plays into our hands, that’s the sort of conditions we want to play.”
Things started well for Bedford as Dorrian put them 3-0 inside as many minutes.
The Australian kicked a penalty, won when Moseley were whistled for crossing inside their own half.
He missed a second attempt on the quarter hour, though, following a penalty for sealing off.
That afforded Pritchard the chance to assume kicking duties and the Australian-born threequarter doubled the lead midway through the period when Aly Muldowney stepped offside. Blues thought they had bagged their first try just after the half hour when Will Chudley broke through midfield and found Fielden in support.
The wing then fed IanVass on the loop and the centre arced his way over by the flag only to be called back for stepping into touch.
Blues added to their tally four minutes before the break, however, as Pritchard punished the Brummies for not rolling away as the half ended 9-0.
Eleven minutes after the restart Blues did manage to cross the line when the full back scooted clear and chipped over the Mose defence.
Opposite number Mike Gillick looked to have fielded but only knocked the ball back over his own line where Pritchard raced through to flop on it and convert his own score.
Then five minutes later a sweeping attack fed Fielden who bashed over Charlie Simpson-Daniel and Andy Reay to dot down.
Blues had Paul Tupai carded for a late hit with ten minutes to go but held firm in defence.
And then Brendan Burke scored after taking Vass’ inside ball around Reay and Gareth Taylor.
But the try was chalked off after the referee’s assistant spotted a Bedford player pulling an opponent to the ground at a maul.
MOSELEY: Gillick; Simpson-Daniel, MacBurnie, Keys, Mensah-Coker; Reay, Gasson (Taylor 61); Williams (Harden 61), Caves (Oselton 61), Sigley, Muldowney, Hall (Stott 48), Wilson, Rowland (Harden 27-37 (Pennycook 48)), Rodwell (Mason 48).
Replacement: Read
BEDFORD: Pritchard; Fielden, Dodge, Vass, Taylor (Burke 48); Dorrian, Chudley; Brown (Cecere 47), Richmond, Boulton, Tupai, Spencer (Rae 40), Gillanders, Harding, Goodman (Lewitt 55).Replacements: Seal, Walshe, Davies Referee: Michael Black (WRU) Scorers:
Bedford: Tries - Pritchard, Fielden; Cons - Pritchard (2); Pens - Dorrian, Pritchard