Match Report

 Bedford II 20-36 Hainault

02/06/07 (Courtesy of Hainault Bulldogs, pictures courtesy of Bedford Tigers)

Tenacity and industry prevailed over experience for the second week running as the Bulldogs secured a stunning victory over the more established Bedford Tigers on Saturday. It was Bedford who started the stronger of the two sides and some silly handling errors in the first 10 minutes saw the Bulldogs concede three tries as the Tigers raced into a 16-0 lead.

The Bulldogs finally woke up and gradually started to wear down the much bigger Bedford team. It wasn't long before the Bulldogs opened their account. Following some great drives from loose forward Joe Green and the ever-present prop Reece Barney, second rower David North took the ball from dummy-half and dived over the line for a try. Hainault then upped the tempo and started to put Bedford under severe pressure, which paid off when skipper Long broke the defence and was backed up by Keith Green for another try. Substitute Graham Bailey was introduced, and immediately made an impact with his strong drives up the middle drawing in the Tigers defence and that gave stand-off Long a chance to run at them, running 50 metres to score a try which he converted himself to make the score 16-14 at half time.

The Tigers came out in the second half knowing they were in for a game and they started the better of the two teams, putting severe pressure on the Bulldogs line, but some fantastic hits from props Terry Lebeau, Barney and North prevented the hosts from scoring. The Tigers extended the lead before a quick response levelled it at 20-20.

Hainault could smell a victory and they deservedly went into the lead for the first time when winger Paul Swift chased a kick down field and collected the ball to dive over in the corner and the Bulldogs led 26-20. Prop Graham Bailey then raced 60 metres to score a great individual try under the posts but the best was saved until last when man-of-the-match Joe Green got the ball in his own half and took on the very tired Tigers defence and burst his way through to race three quarters of the pitch to score as the Bulldogs ran out 36-20 winners.