Bedford v London Welsh Preview
By Mark W-J
September 15 2011
For the second weekend running London Welsh are involved in the ‘match of the day’ in the Championship, as, once again, second entertain third. This time we visit Bedford, the first meeting this year of the clubs who have been losing play-off semi-finalists in each of the last two seasons; they were also runners-up in last year’s B&I Cup, and we meet them in this season’s pool stages next month.
One of the division’s three remaining 100% records will come to an end on Saturday - two in the case of a draw, of which there has been only one in 24 previous league meetings (6-6 in 1987-88, the first season of league rugby). Bristol currently sit proudly at the top of the Championship with a maximum ten point return from their opening two fixtures, while Bedford and Welsh have nine apiece following bonus-point victories last Saturday. A 28-26 opening victory at Nottingham was sealed with a 78th minute try from replacement lock Sean Tomes, but in their 55-6 win Esher last week they had the bonus point in the bag by half-time, despite falling 6-0 behind inside the first 15 minutes. Fly-half Jamie Lennard, who joined from London Irish in the summer having played six games (four league, two cup) on loan at ODP last season, kicked six conversions and a penalty - he and Gordon Ross have kicked 30 points each in their two games, three behind the joint-top scorers, Rob Cook (Pirates), Joe Ford (Leeds) and James Love (Plymouth). As we’ve played both Leeds and Plymouth so far, those statistics could suggest that the old problem of conceding too many kickable penalties is still a problem for the Welsh; three yellow cards - which puts us top of the ‘bad boys’ table with Esher and Rotherham - would back that up.
Lennard’s success with the boot so far has meant that Bedford haven’t yet missed the prolific James Pritchard, who kicked ten points in Canada’s 25-20 win over Tonga on Wednesday. The Canucks’ tries were scored by London Irish-bound lock Jebb Sinclair, plus two Championship regulars, Plymouth No.8 Aaron Carpenter and Esher centre Phil Mackenzie. With Nottingham fly-half James Arlidge scoring all 21 of Japan’s points against France last Saturday - including a full house of try, conversion, penalty and drop-goal - the Championship is getting valuable mentions on terrestrial television. Unfortunately the RWC hasn’t yet caught the public’s imagination to the extent that they are spending their Saturday afternoons watching the game in the flesh. Last Saturday’s crowd of 798 at ODP was down 9% on the first home game of last season - and that was against Birmingham Solihull, comfortably the worst-supported club in the division - while our visitors, Plymouth, were bemoaning the fact that their attendance of 1,330 versus Esher in week one was the lowest ever seen at the Brickfields. Our best crowd in the ‘league’ stage of last season was 1,940 versus Bristol, although 2,057 attended the play-off pool game against Worcester. By comparison, Bedford’s lowest crowd of the season was 1,954 in a play-off dead rubber against Rotherham- they even drew 2,416 for our B&I Cup tie in January, whereas our three home ties in the competition attracted an aggregate total of just under 1,700.
This is the 25th season of league rugby, and Bedford have spent 20 of those at level two in the pyramid. Following the aforementioned draw in our first meeting - our points coming from the boot of a player who enjoyed much success as coach of Bedford, Paul Turner - they beat us 18-6 in 1988-89 as they were promoted as runners-up to Saracens. For over ten years we moved in different circles, the Blues enjoying three years in the top flight in two spells either side of a two year sojourn in National Three following one of the myriad restructures which seem to have affected us all down the years. But they were relegated from the Premiership at the end of 1999-2000 - a season in which their top try-scorer was Paul Sackey and leading points scorer Andy Gomarsall - and we’ve enjoyed each other’s company ever since. It sounds ridiculous, given the proximity of Harlequins, Richmond, London Scottish and - to a varying degree - Wasps and London Irish, but for many years the games with Bedford have been our local derbies. They were formed one year after Welsh, in 1886, so are celebrating their 125th anniversary this season, and our first meeting was at Goldington Road in November 1892. Last season’s game at Bedford was televised live by Sky, the home team sneaking a 19-16 win after two Welsh tries in injury time. The return at ODP was a thriller, our visitors collecting two bonus points by scoring four tries to our three as Gordon Ross’s 80th minute penalty from inside his own half secured us a 25-22 win. So after 160 minutes of rugby last season, the aggregate score was 41-41, and each team had scored five tries, two conversions and four penalties - yet Bedford ‘won’ the series 6-5 in terms of match points courtesy of their four tries at ODP.
After just two rounds of fixtures, the top four sides in the Championship are the four who have contested the knockout stages of the play-offs since they were introduced. Despite having played two years of Premiership rugby at Goldington Road in the professional era, Bedford couldn’t be promoted if they were to win this year’s final - but they claim to have no ambition to do so. For many the scars of their last stint among the elite will never heal, and they’re happy to remain the ‘best of the rest’ in the Championship. The vast majority of their squad have careers outside of rugby, and in Mike Rayer they have arguably one of the most under-rated coaches in the British Isles - to many Championship fans he should have been a shoo-in at the Arms Park when Dai Young moved to Wasps this summer. To Wales fans he will be remembered for his two tries as a replacement in the opening Five Nations victory over Scotland in our championship-winning year of 1994 - but according to his Wikipedia page he has an even greater claim to fame; “His name is often used in rymming slang. ‘I’m going for a Mike Rayer’, slang for ‘all dayer’ ie to drink all day.” Which do you think he’s more proud of…?
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PADDYTAF 
Here's the team for tomorrow:
15. Edd Thrower, 14. Will Hurrell, 13. Hudson Tonga’uiha*, 12. Simon Whatling, 11. Liam Gibson, 10. Gordon Ross*, 9. Rob Lewis, 1. Billy Moss, 2. Vili Ma’asi *, 3. James Tideswell, 4. Gary Johnson, 5. Matt Corker, 6. Jon Mills ©, 7. Mike Denbee, 8 Ed Jackson.
Replacements: 16. Dan George, 17. Greg Bateman, 18. Adam Brown, 19. Lee Beach, 20. Ben Stevenson, 21. Alex Davies. 22. Paul Mackey.
[www.london-welsh.co.uk]
Lyn Jones is on Scrum V this evening, (19:00 BBC 2 Wales on Freeview & Sky and online via BBC Sport) as an analyst along with Jonathan Davies (‘Jiffy’). It might be worth plugging in the Preview for tomorrow’s game.
Quote:Newest Sir Benfro
I think we can see we have a much broader and consistent squad to choose from this season - even without DR's and loanees
Yes - particularly when Shawn Pittman also returns.
Quote:Newest Sir Benfro
I think we can see we have a much broader and consistent squad to choose from this season - even without DR's and loanees
Suggests that Phil and Mike did a good job putting together this group of players.
Quote:Lyn Jones, BBC website
"The squad in London Welsh has already been put together so I'm inheriting a squad.
"It will be quite interesting to see everybody play and make judgements as soon as I can to formulate my best starting fifteen for September."
Hope we win and I'll be sorry to miss another away game owing to the calls of a cricket(-watching) season not yet over.
3pm: Before kick off there's a minute's silence for the recent Gleision Colliery tragedy. You could have heard a pin drop inside Goldington road.
(above is as perfectly noted in Damian's updates on the main site)