Bedford v Bristol

[Jonno]

It's all been said above ... the question is what are we going to do about it?

[Combine Harvester Racer]

The only positive from today was I thought Myles Dorrian looked good when he came on. I think he's the man to guide us to the playoffs. Ref was awful but he probably didn't cost us the game. Silly handling errors and an unusually terrible line out did. The handling errors have been a constant factor in our recent poor form, the players need a training session dedicated to catching practice! We don't seem to be able to put more than 3 phases together without couching up possession atm, and our back line is lacking a bit of spark without Ben Ransom. Cannot understand the decision to leave out Josh on arguably our most important game of the season today.

[Ginger Blueboy]

[quote]The only positive from today was that I thought Myles Dorrian looked good when he came on

[Ginger Blueboy]

And a "must improve" for me with using quote boxes correctly
That's about the third time since joining the HYS I've quoted my own writing!

Out of interest, can anyone tell me the last time we scored nul points down the slope? I can't remember this ever happening before, but that could be due to fuzzy memory.

But congratulations to Bristol and let's hope they do us a favour and defeat Nottingham next week!

[caxton crew]

Got to be the worst performance this season, if not for a very long time. Never looked liked winning I'm afraid.

Lost at least 3 lineouts, dropped the ball 4 times or more, not kicking more than 10 metres from the restart is an unforgiveable sin.

The same ref for both sides, yes, but I counted only one straight lineout on the Bristol throw, some dubious penalties against us for not releasing (Neil Cochrane HAD rolled away when pinged just before half time) and several occasions when we should have had a penalty for them not being 10 metres after a quickly taken penalty.

Whilst we defended well, we had no real pace in attack and were woefully static too often.

I'm lucky enough to be in Newcastle next Friday - I'm hoping for a real backlash and some passion.

Alan

[Devon Lady]

And to finish a bad day at the Office Skip has broken his arm.
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Devon Lady

[Blueherts]

Quote: "Got to be the worst performance this season, if not for a very long time."

I have to disagree, Caxton. I have seen the Blues play worse than yesterday - and come away with a win. Remember going up to Doncaster back in November?

The difference this time was an appallingly bad referee and Bristol's "professionalism". As has been said earlier, all but one of Bristol's lineouts were blatantly not straight and every put-in at the scrum went straight to their No. 7's boot. And never once was either thing penalized by the referee. And these were unfortunately not his only shortcomings.

And what was all that needless fisticuffs in the first 5 minutes all about? Intimidation tactics?

I am not saying that Bedford played well. Clearly it was far from that. Nor that Bristol were not the better team on the day. But there were other factors in play yesterday which should be accounted for.

And now we have Skippy out for the rest of the season and our substitute captain departed to Wasps. Things are looking pretty bleak.

[Steward Boy]

Can't add much that has not be said the referree was as bad for both sides but worst I have seen for ages. Have seen critism of Mr Tempest on a number of sites and he is supposed to be one of the best! Caxton Crew have to disagree one of the ones he got right. NC moved but still stopped the ball coming back difference between movement and allowing the ball to be played cleanly
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Mick Meadows
Blues fan since 1964

[bigbluepip]

I would say we haven't played well since we played Rotherham on Boxing Day, we need to be more rugby savvy instead of just battering away at a very good defensive line. More than once I watched James Stephenson run at a well organised line and try to beat them with footwork, when there was acres of space behind, no cover and quick men outside him. Teams have learnt and we have a reputation for playing running rugby, and they defend that and I'm not singling out JS, just using him as an example.
Like most others, I thought the ref was shocking, but we all see the game differently, I think consistency is all you can hope for from the man in the middle, and that was missing from him yesterday.
I thought our forwards scrummaged fantastically yesterday, and this was ref'ed very poorly, their loosehead could not cope and took it down on a number of occasions without being penalised. Our lineout went missing and we didn't cotton on that Biz threw to 2 every time, straight or not, I couldn't tell you, but put pressure on them and make them do something different!!
A group of us are travelling up to Newcastle for the game and I'm concerned we are going to get a pasting if we play like that and I'm not sure what you can do in 4 days to change that.
Over to you Mr Rayer et al.
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I want you all to sort yourselves alphabetically by height, pair up in 3's and line up in a circle.

[simon_luton]

As I just said on another post, remind me what position in the league we are? above clubs with more pro's and larger budgets?

I know we keep going on about the budget and being semi-pro but it is a significant factor.

[Blue Fox]

Poor match in a very poor season (IMHO) and it will be more miserable if we don't make the play-offs, and Pirates will have us in their sights now. Even if we do stay in the top four I can't see much progress from there on. Hate to be negative but I could not see much out there yesterday to hang a hat on, the vocal support was understandably deflated and JPs injury just about topped a mediocre afternoon. Time now for the DR arrangement to work for us a bit more.

[artfulbadger]

Blue Fox, I can't agree about it having been a poor season overall. I remember thinking earlier on that this was one of the strongest Blues squads which I could remember for a while and we played really well most of the time until Christmas, hence our pleasing position in the league. Since then, it has been a different story, and I am struggling to understand why. Early in the season, we did not drop passes as often as we caught them, we did not spill the majority of high balls, we won nearly all our line outs (unlike in past seasons), we were quick to the breakdown and our exciting backs carved holes in the defensive lines set against them. Some of the change (and particularly the issue with the backs) may be to do with other sides being ready for us. This trend started at LS, when we hardly broke the line all day. I am wondering, however, if some of the rest is due to a leaking away of confidence. Our play yesterday reminded me of how we always seem to play when being televised. There was sometimes a rather frantic aspect to what we did, such as Baldwin running just about every penalty before the break when a bit of calm going through the phases might have been helpful. We demonstrated good basic skills in catching passing, running line outs and what have you early in the season, but yesterday these skills simply evaporated and I can't help thinking that there must be psychological factors involved. Time for Mike to show his skills as almost certainly the best manager in the league to turn things around.

[Deerhunter]

I don't normally critiscize referees but I did think his management of the quick tap penalty, and the 10 metre rule was appalling. Baldwin was checked illegally at least 3 times.

[old school]

One of the biggest problems facing us is the disjointed way our league campaign pans out. The team goes on a run of wins in the league and then faces inferior competetion in the B&I cup. The team gets changed, we bag a hatful of points and I am sure that a degree of complacency kicks in.

On Saturday there is no doubt that we werre beaten by the better team and tbh that is to be expected. Bristol were more professional and hardened. We can't always blame the ref, as you can only play to the whistle and fair play to Bristol they were street wise enough to take advantage.

Can we not revert to that tried and trusted format where we play league games on most Saturdays throuhout the season without the hindrance of playing teams that would have trouble beating Bedford Ath (no disrespect to the Ath). Also a sense of realism might help to - we are a good team but some way off being a top team.

[caxton crew]

Blueherts - I'll stick to my original thoughts, worst performance of the season. Yes, we have played badly and won but on Saturday we didn't look like winning, especially going into the break 11 points down instead of 8.

Bristol's 2 tries were from fast, slick handling across the back line that stretched our defence, something I've seen us do on numerous occasions this season, home and away, but not on Saturday. Hynsey summed it all up perfectly in the Rugby Paper.

Onwards and upwards, Newcastle away will be the perfect opportunity for the boys to show what they're made of, admittedly without Pritch on the field but in MR we have a great man and fine coach to drive the team forward from this setback.

COYB

Alan