Bedford v London Welsh Preview

By Mark W-J
October 27 2010

At Bedford on Friday night, in front of the Sky TV crew broadcasting live to the nation, London Welsh begin a series of three matches which may well define our season. With Worcester and Cornish Pirates to visit ODP on the next two weekends, we will know by mid-November whether our current second place in the Championship table is a true reflection of our standing in English rugby’s second tier.

It’s a quirk of the fixture list this season that teams generally face a series of fixtures against the top five sides, followed by back-to-back meetings with the bottom two, Birmingham Solihull and Plymouth. Consequently, last weekend’s visitors, Bristol, have a chance to boost their meagre points tally against arguably the weakest two clubs in the league, while Welsh, after nine games, are yet to meet our two closest rivals. All three of us have won five of our last six games, although Welsh are the owners of the league’s longest current unbeaten run, having collected a maximum return of 15 points from our last three games. The fact that that run follows a Friday night loss at Esher, and that we were defeated on a Friday night in front of the Sky cameras at Bristol barely six months ago needn’t necessarily be seen as an omen…

Ten years have passed since Bedford dropped out of the Premiership, and they very nearly suffered back-to-back relegations, surviving by a single point at the expense of Orrell, who beat the Welsh in their final fixture, 23-22 at Edge Hall Road, only to discover that their two rivals for the drop – Blues and Otley - had miraculously drawn 17-17, and were there both safe. Since then the Blues have consistently been one of our more obdurate opponents, inflicting 15 defeats on the Exiles over the last decade. The clubs were the losing semi-finalists in last season’s promotion play-offs, and in pipping the Blues to third place at the end of the ‘main’ part of the season, we finished above them for the first time since 2002-03. They even finished as runners-up to Harlequins in 2005-06, also losing to Dean Richards’ side at Twickenham in the final of the EDF Energy Trophy, having won the Powergen Shield the previous season.

Like the Welsh, Bedford have won seven of their nine Championship fixtures to-date, with their defeats coming at Rotherham (19-16) in week two, when the Yorkshiremen were staking a claim to the title of ‘surprise package of the season’, and a fortnight ago in their last home fixture, to Worcester (28-18). That afternoon saw a war of attrition, with the respective goalkickers, James Pritchard and Andy Goode, matching each other shot-for-shot. Pritchard drew the home side level with 77 minutes on the clock, only for Goode to land his third drop-goal of the afternoon as Blues fumbled the restart. But as the home-side pushed forward in search of glory, winger Marcel Garvey intercepted to break Bedford hearts and preserve his club’s 100% start to the season. Until last weekend – but that’s another story.

Pritchard is, once again, the Blues’ top scorer this season, as he has been in each of the seven seasons he’s spent at the club since 2001-02. With 116 points so far this season he needs only 109 more to top 2,000 points in league rugby – all but 260 of his 1,891 have been scored for the Blues, with the remainder coming during a two year sabbatical spent at firstly Plymouth and then Northampton. Yet while his current strike-rate of around 83% is very impressive, it ranks only around fifth in the division for regular goalkickers, with Nottingham’s James Arlidge landing over 90% of his attempts at the posts. By comparison, Gordon Ross has recently hit a rich vein of form with the boot, and his percentage is now up to about 72%, still a very respectable average.

Friday night’s game sees the division’s meanest defences come head-to-head. Each club has conceded just 11 tries in nine games so far, and along with Worcester are the only teams not to have conceded a try-bonus point. Welsh, however, have scored more tries (36) and more try bonus points (six) than any other Championship side, and in Josh Drauniniu we have the division’s leading try-scorer. Yet, as Bristol learned to their cost last weekend, Josh is just one of many potential game-breakers in the Welsh backline – if you stop him you leave gaps elsewhere. The strength in depth in this season’s squad was emphasised by Aled Thomas’ return of two tries, four conversions and a penalty after replacing Gordon Ross midway through the first half, plus tries for both replacement wingers.

Given Pritchard’s prowess with the boot, Welsh will be mindful of keeping their discipline on Friday. Worryingly, another facet in which we’re top-of-the-league is yellow cards – with eight in nine games we haven’t kept all fifteen men on the field for the full 80 minutes since the opening home win over Bees in round three. And with Bedford’s backline having contributed 22 of the club’s 29 tries, making them the second-most potent back division in the league, we can’t afford to lose men in a tight game which could have a major bearing on the seedings for the promotion play-offs. Followers of the Championship are hoping for an exciting game between two sides recognised for their open, expansive game; a great advert for Championship rugby, and truly gripping reality TV. Let’s just pray for a happy ending.

Posted by: The Dragons\\\' Den (IP Logged)

Date: 27/10/2010 20:53

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