London Welsh v Bedford Preview

By Mark W-J
December 1 2011

London Welsh’s last home game before Christmas sees the third-placed Exiles entertain second-placed Bedford at the unusually early time of 12-30pm. Games with the Blues are usually crackers, and the home support will be wishing for a sackload of tries and a feast of running rugby, while our Scrooge-like defence hopefully offers the visitors no gifts or cheer. I just hope it doesn’t rain, dear…

At the midway stage of the Championship season it was clear that the contenders for the promotion and relegation places were taking shape, with the top eight starting to pull away from the bottom four. As a result of last weekend’s fixtures the gap has widened still further, but wins for Doncaster and Leeds over Pirates and Rotherham respectively appear to have seen the top three pull away from the chasing pack. However, one feature of the 12-team Championship is that every weekend features at least two fixtures between top-eight sides, and with leaders Bristol entertaining fifth-placed Leeds – who have won seven in a row – on Sunday, Welsh could finish the weekend anywhere from first to fifth in the table.

Bedford have the best attack in the division, having scored 389 points, 48 tries and eight try bonus points in their 12 games to-date. Nineteen of those tries have been scored by their wingers, with teenager Josh Bassett having scored nine in the club’s last seven matches – the only seven league games he’s started for the club. Consequently he’s joined Ed Jackson and Pirates’ David Doherty at the top of the try-scoring charts, although Ed’s 16th minute try at Plymouth last week was his first since the defeat at Bristol in mid-October. For once the name of James Pritchard doesn’t feature at the top of the list of the Championship’s top scorers, yet the Canadian international has grabbed 59 points in his last four appearances since returning from the World Cup where he kicked 31 points in three appearances against Tonga, France and Japan. Jamie Lennard, who had four-match loan spell at ODP last Christmas, is their leading scorer with 107, 20 behind Gordon Ross.

Sin binnings for Paul Mackey and Mike Denbee at Plymouth last week mean that Welsh have received ten yellows in twelve games this season, four of them against Albion and five in November alone. Nine different players have spent time in the bin, with Greg Bateman the only repeat offender. Only Esher have a worse disciplinary record with eleven players being binned, while Bedford have received only two yellows all season, and none at all in the nine games since our 22-18 defeat at Goldington Road on 17th September. We have the meanest defence in the league, with just 220 points and 20 tries conceded, but only Leeds have conceded more points from penalties than the Dragons. In each of the last three seasons Welsh and Bedford have each won one and lost one of our league meetings, with the losers collecting a bonus point in five of the last seven meetings, so discipline will be crucial on Saturday. Of course, nobody who witnessed last season’s meeting at ODP will forget Gordon’s Ross’s 80th minute penalty from halfway which secured a 25-22 win, although the Blues also collected a try bonus that afternoon and were ultimately denied victory by a succession of missed kicks by full-back Edd Thrower.

Bedford and Welsh have been the losing play-off semi-finalists in both seasons of Championship rugby, and our rivalry extends back to the 19th century. Only Exeter have beaten us more often in the league, Welsh emerging victorious on only six occasions in our 25 meetings to-date with a single draw in the first encounter in 1987. The Blues were relegated from the Allied Dunbar Premiership at the end of the 1999-2000 season, so are currently enjoying their 11th consecutive level two campaign. Despite surviving the threat of a second successive relegation on the final day of the 2000-01 season, they’ve finished in the top half of the table in each of the last ten years, including second-place finishes in 2005-06 and 2010-11. Unlike the majority of clubs in the top half of the table they do not run a full-time squad, although they do have a very productive relationship with Saracens which saw the likes of Owen Farrell, James Short and Jackson Wray spending time on-loan at Goldington Road last season. In addition, a number of players have left Bedford for the bright lights of the Premiership in recent years, including Saone Tonga’uiha (Northampton), Luke Fielden (Newcastle), Mouritz Botha (Saracens) and Myles Dorrian (Exeter), while Paul Turner and Rudi Straeuli have embarked upon successful coaching careers since their playing days ended.

Games between our two clubs are invariable tense, exciting affairs. We’re both in the top three in the league table, are among the top three clubs for both tries and points scored, have two of the division’s top three try-scorers and have the best two points differences in the league. The weather outside may be frightful, but the rugby’s sure to be delightful.

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

Date: 01/12/2011 21:04

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