Bedians grind it out

This Saturday saw the second team put right their mistakes from the previous week and grind out a hard fought victory against a strong young Manchester side.

The game started with a flat kickoff from Manchester which Old Bedians failed to gather. Manchester stole the resulting line-out, just inside the Bedians' 22, and soon after were awarded a penalty. Bedians were 3-0 down in the first minute.

After the restart the men in blue changed their tune and started to play with good tempo and aggression orchestrated by scrum half Tom Slinger and fly half Vince Betty. One of these bouts of attack ended with a Manchester boot pushing the ball out of play. Fast thinking centre Ryan Keyes took a quick thrown in passing to James Hennigan. Manchester were convinced that they had marked the lineout, but the referee disagreed allowing play to carry on. Meanwhile, James sprinted unopposed through the Manchester 22 to the try line where he then dropped the ball. Unfortunately soon after Ryan Keyes had to leave the field after coming off second best form a collision with a teammate and requiring stitches.

Bedians defended well in the first half and their cover defence stopped Manchester fly-half scoring in the corner twice. Bedians did not make this easy for themselves as Vince was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle. The score at half time was 3-0 to Manchester.

At half time Bedians spoke about how this week was going to be different from the last. About how it is all well and good to say what needs to be done, but it is the performance in the next 40 minutes that counts. Boy did they take heed to this message! After a strong set of phases and continued pressure on Manchester, blindside flanker Steve McKendrick received an off-load from second-row Dom Shread and scored in the corner. Bedians were ahead by 2. However, this lead was short lived as Manchester soon scored another penalty making it 6-5 to the visitors.

Later on in the second half pressure from Bedians led to Dom being held up and then shortly after Pies also being denied a place on the score sheet. These efforts were not in vain, as Dom barraged his way over the whitewash leaving the score 10-6 to the home side with 12 minutes until the whistle. Bedians held out for the rest of the half showing great defence, with man of the match, stand in centre (having started at hooker) Daniel Davis making some ferocious tackles. All was not plain sailing though, as loose-head prop Ian Betts was shown yellow for not retreating in the last few minutes.

Luckily, Bedes held firm and saw off a fantastic game between two very well matched sides.