Bedford Athletic hang on

Bedford ground staff had been working hard all morning to clear the snow to get this Midlands 1 East 4th place Bedford vs 5th place Ilkeston game on, with only 1 point separating the two sides. Ilkeston started badly though, losing captain Adam Corcoran in the warm up to a re-occurrence of a calf strain, handing youngster Tom Hicks his first start at 8 and leaving us only 2 on the bench.

Conditions were cold, wet and muddy but it didn't stop the Elks from at least trying to play some rugby right from the kick off.

So it was Bedford who got the game underway, opting to kick down the slope with the wind at their backs. This gave an early opportunity for Hicks and Dan Taylor to get us into the game up to the half way but as was to be the form for most of the afternoon, we rarely got into top gear, losing the ball in the free for all ruck area. Generally though Ilkeston started the better team and although early exchanges in the scrum were fairly even, it was the mighty Elks pack who started to turn the screw in the second half with total domination of ours and Bedford's scrummages.

Our good ruck worked forced several early penalties that sent is deep into the Bedford 22m where it was a different tale in the lineouts however, as Bedford were winning a good supply of ball and our mistakes were halting any progress by the Elks and letting Bedford off the hook. Bedford got their try off a failed ilkeston line out that allowed them to attack from their 22m, with a serious of pick and drives where they spotted and un-marshalled blind side to eventually score an unconverted try in the corner, bringing the score to 5-0 on the 10 minute mark.

From the restart, both the Elks and Bedford gave penalties away at the breakdowns, allowing Ilkeston to clear their lines to the half way. The line out ball was won by Matthew Watkins but dropped forward in the maul. Good pressure from the Elks pack in the resultant Bedford scrum saw the ball shoot out the back and pressure from Jake Lamb saw him pick up possession behind the Bedford scrum. He pinned his ears back and went for the corner fending off two would be tacklers but the referee judged the ball dropped over the line, from some 20m away.

Shortly afterwards Bedford completed their scoring with an easy penalty in front of the sticks for not rolling away in the tackle, 8-0 with 20 minutes gone.

The remainder of the half saw Ilkeston unable to get passed three phases, with the notable exception of the last play of the half which went up to almost 20 phases, but with a strong Bedford defence and a couple of well worked overlaps ignored, it was to end with an Ilkeston knock on our 22m after a kick over the defensive line allowed Bedford to clear down field.

Dan Taylor was replaced at half time with Isaac Taylor and Marc Moore was later to take to the field with 20 minutes remaining. Ilkeston got straight into the Bedford pack again and good work from Dan Bell all afternoon was to be the start of the a series of scrums that eventually led to the Ilkeston score. From a half way scrum, Grey Taylor was fed and burst through the defensive line, eventually dragged down on the Bedford 5 meter line, where he was unable to offload to the supporting Jonathan Falls. The resulting scrum was pushed over by the Elks but not grounded. This was corrected on the 2nd attempt however by Thomas Hicks at 8 scoring the pushover try from a Bedford put in whose scrum was now on rails. This handed an easy conversion to Falls under the sticks to bring the score 8-7 in Bedford's favour.

Despite total domination in the scrum, the conditions eventually got the better of both sides with their attempts to play rugby. This just wasn't the usual slick handling display by the Elks and again we never really got passed 3 or 4 phases with our decision making at times also not helping. Credit has to go to Bedford for hanging onto the 1 point lead for much of the 2nd half, digging deep to repel their visitors.

Some positives though with youngsters Dan Bell and Tom Hicks deserving a mention, Dan for his scrum work at tight head, and the nod for Man of the Match going to 80 minute number 8 debutant Hicks for his good work at the base of the scrum resulting in the try, tireless work in defence and strong ball carrying, all boding well for the future.

Next week sees us looking to get back to winning ways at home against league strugglers Belgrave, 2:15pm kick off.