Awayday win for Academy starlets as defence holds firm

Ahead by 17 points to nil at half-time, the Blues had to dig deep in the final quarter to keep out an Esher side who grew in confidence as the game progressed.

Bedford took the lead after 15 minutes when a break from inside his own half by winger Eric Edwin put scrum-half Lewis Dennett in for a try which fly-half Cameron Gregory-Ring converted.

The Blues stretched their lead five minutes later when a scrum was won inside the Bedford half on the left hand side; the ball was moved across the back line for Edwin who was stopped close to the line, but was able to offload to full-back Toby White who scored in the corner.

The best try of the game came just before half-time. Pressure from Bedford won them a lineout five metres out on the left; the long throw was won cleanly off the top and the ball eventually found its way to centre Stuart Livesey to score to from an overlap.

Esher fought back after half-time and it was 20 minutes before the Blues scored their final try when a lineout on the left was moved wide for Edwin to score in the right hand corner.

Esher began to put together some good attacks and the Blues had to dig deep to defend their line.

Flanker Harry Agnew, who had a fine game, saved a certain try when he covered across the width of the pitch to stop the winger, but he was sent to the sin bin for not releasing and the Blues had to hold out with 14 men.

The last 10 minutes saw some dogged defence from the Blues to keep the score to nil.

Blues Academy director Denis Ormesher said: “This was an encouraging performance.

“We had a few injuries during the week and, with some players not available, we made a few changes.

“As ever we learnt a lot. There are lots of areas of our game that we need to improve on before we face some of the tougher fixtures we have coming up.

“However, we are still in August and we are pleased with how well the squad has come together over the summer; we have a long season ahead of us.”

Ormesher added: “Some of the tries we scored today were well executed and the defensive performance in the last 15 minutes was great to see.

“Sometimes when the game is won it is easy to relax and concede a score. It was great to see that the boys did not relax, they dug deep and showed real character and pride to defend to keep the score to nil.

“Games against older sides teach them a lot. We have another tough game against an older side coming up when we play a Cambridge U21 XV on Saturday at Goldington Road, kick-off 2pm.”