So the season is over, ending as it started – bright sunshine and soaring temperatures.  This Midlands derby certainly had the makings of a good game, Bedford recent winner of the Powergen Shield and conquerors of League Champions Bristol last week, whilst Coventry were playing to overtake their visitors for sixth place in the league.

A large crowd (the largest this season?) assisted ably by the travelling Bedford contingent (and very vocal) were observers to a game where both teams looked to open play up and run the ball.  Dave Addleton lead the Coventry team out in his final XV game though the rest of the starting line-up rightly hung back off pitch, to allow the crowds appreciation for Aggie to be solely received by the Coventry veteran.

Bedford emerged from the opening exchanges 10-5 ahead through Leigh Hinton’s 2^nd minute penalty and replying with their own try, converted by Hinton who passed Bedford’s most points in a season record with the conversion.  In between the Bedford scoring, Richard Davies took to the outside of the Bedford defence on the right and outpaced them to score in the corner, but unable to tag on the conversion.  Hinton had also put a penalty onto the right post with the ensuing rebound causing slight panic in the Coventry ranks before it was cleared.

The majority of the first half was Bedford’s though they continually wasted overlaps on the wing either knocking on, kicking ahead or one player doing too much.  Cov’s defence was standing firm though the tackles weren’t putting players on the floor.  Against the run of play, Cov broke again with Pila Fifita touching down to the right of the posts. Davies securing the easy conversion pushing Coventry 12-10 ahead.  One thing was becoming evident at this point with tempers high from both sets of players – Bedford following in after Fifita had touched down and the Bedford 2^nd rowers being slightly overeager in some of their play.  All this and only 15 minutes gone in the game, Coventry rarely rose to the Bedford actions replying instead with handling and running rugby enabling the ball to be kept alive and when tackled quick release to enable quick next phase.  Bedford, at times, were unable to handle this with Tonga’uiha, (loosehead prop) persistently interfering with the tackle area.  The ref penalised him for hands in the ruck though Davies pushed the resulting kick at goal to the right but 5 minutes later Tonga’uiha was at it again and the ref duly showed him the way to the sin bin with a yellow card.  With a numerical and weight advantage following the sin binning, Cov kicked to the corner which allowed a catch and drive for Dave Addleton, captain for the day in his 354^th and final first XV game, to be the body under the maul and try scorer.  Unfortunately, Aggie injured himself in this try and was replaced amidst the eruption on announcement of the try scorer’s name!  Davies again added the conversion to further stretch Coventry’s lead to 19-10.

Five minutes before the break, Fifita was sin binned for a high tackle on Hinton, who took some time to recover, with Bedford themselves back to fifteen players scoring their second try from the subsequent lineout and catch and drive move reducing the score to 19-15 as Hinton missed the conversion.  As though to prove a point, a minute before half-time, Ben Gulliver stole a Bedford lineout in their territory for Perry to waltz his way through the shell shocked Bedford defence securing a 4-try bonus point before halftime.  With a large amount of ease, Davies added his third conversion to enable a comfortable lead at half time for Coventry, 26-15.

The game was taken well away from Bedford in the opening 15 minutes of the second half.  Direct from the restart, Bedford knocked on, Higgins took the pass from Perry after the scrum, breaking the Bedford defensive line and drawing the full back and feeding Donovan Sanders allowing an unopposed run to score under the post.  Minutes later and Coventry were at it again, recycling the ball with a mixture of quick ball from rucks and offloading the ball in the tackle resulted in Kurt Johnson, in midfield off his wing, beating the last couple of defenders and touching down left of the posts.  Davies improving both scores to give a score of 40-15 in Coventry’s favour.

At this point, a rout was on the cards with Coventry taking a scrum against the head, Dan Farani picked up at number eight, feeding the backs on the blind side producing a run in for Nik Witkowski, under the posts again allowing Davies to convert his 6^th kick.

This scoring spree had taken its toll on Coventry as they started to allow Bedford back into the game, resorting to rolling mauls at every opportunity, though they managed score two-further pushover tries, both converted by Hinton, Coventry had already done enough to guarantee the win and bonus point for sixth place.  The game ended 47-29 for Coventry, enabling their supporters to witness a disjointed performance but when things clicked and worked – boy did it show.  Big performances today by the whole side though Jon Higgins ran the game from fly-half, James Percival enjoying some big ball-carrying yardage and along with Gulliver dominating lineouts.