Strettle shines in the Darkness!

Bedford v Saracens, Goldington Road, Friday 19th August 2011A warm sunny August evening in Bedford – a day better suited to cricket – it must be the start of the rugby season! (and having spent yesterday getting soaked at the Oval, little DG & I should know!)

Once again Saracens were the guests at Goldington Road and this time the occasion was to switch on the new floodlights (of which more later). Sarries had brought a strong team featuring old favourites like “the Bees” (Brits, Borthwick, Botha & Barritt) and some new guys notably Charlie Hodgson, Joe Maddock and scrum half Ben Spencer. The bench was largely made up of unfamiliar names including dual registered  Mako Vanipola, Duncan Taylor & Harry Allen and 7’s star Jean-Baptiste Bruzulier. The Blues line up also included some familiar names including Don Barrell in the starting 15 and Jake Sharp on the bench. Blues were also showcasing some new blood such as London Irish imports Jamie Lennard & Jon Fisher. The referee was also a new name to me Darren Gamage.

The game started rather inauspiciously for Ben Spencer. His first box kick made barely a few yards and his second was charged down leading to a powerful Bedford attack which ended worryingly with Neil Cochrane forcing his way through the entire Sarries midfield to score. Lennard converted and Bedford took the lead. Sarries won a couple of penalties & Strettle seemed to have scored but Goode’s pass was correctly adjudged forward. The Sarries pack was dominant and won a penalty from the resulting scrum which Hodgson kicked confidently to open the score for the Premiership Champions.

Botha dropped the restart from which Bedford eventually gained another penalty 3 points. Sarries looked more confident from the restart and a succession of scrum penalties followed. A penalty try looked likely but the Bedford pack put in a huge effort forcing Melck to collect at the base of the scrum. He found Hodgson who dummied and flicked the ball out to Strettle and he scored under the posts. This time Goode took the kick but with the same result and the scores were level at 10-10.

Goode started off another Sarries attack and as the ball was recycled, Spencer made up for his earlier lapses by collecting the ball and running through the Bedford defence to score. Hodgson missed the kick possibly because of the speed at which Schmidt was heading towards him. With a quarter of the game gone it was getting decidedly gloomy (they would have been off for bad light at the Oval) and the decision to delay the big “Switch On” until halftime looked a bit optimistic.

Bedford continued to show plenty of fight. They missed a kickable penalty then scored from a second (when Strettle took the team yellow for repeatedly not rolling away). By now it was very dark. Maybe that excused the many handling errors (of which Botha was uncharacteristically the  most guilty – what has Martin Johnson done to him?) Somewhere in the gloom, the referee showed Dan Seal, the Bedford Prop, a yellow card (well in the twilight it looked grey but I guess it was yellow) for persistent offending. Hodgson had clearly eaten most carrots and was given the job of finding the posts which he did before the referee called a rather premature halt to proceedings and Sarries went in an unconvincing 13-18 ahead.

At last someone put a few pennies in the meter and the brand spanking new lights came on. Suddenly the world was a brighter place!

Both teams made changes at half time with Kruis replacing Borthwick for Sarries. Brits appeared to assume the role of captain which seemed to give him license to play anywhere, do anything. Somewhat worryingly the 7 man Bedford scrum seemed to hold its own against the mighty Sarries’ pack. A break from Goode won a penalty which Hodgson kicked to go 13-21 ahead. Vunipola replaced Gill and Bedford brought on “former Sarrie” Jake Sharp (?). Again rather worryingly the Bedford pack won a scrum penalty from which they almost scored a try. Hodgson kicked another penalty to increase the lead to 13-24 and then followed the best move of the match. It was started and finished by the free-ranging Brits who found Goode and Strettle before scoring himself. For a moment it looked like Brits was going to take the conversion as well before Hodgson stepped in to make it 13-31.

Hodgson departed, having picked up a hopefully not-too-serious bang and on came Mordt. This was the signal for Brits to station himself at fullback but his clearing kick was way below his usual high standard. Undeterred he wandered over to first receiver to the apparent surprise of Mordt who thought he was playing fly half. Shortly after the management brought on Harry Allen and normal service was restored.

An uncharacteristic knock on by Goode led to a solid Bedford scrum. Fisher collected at the base and the ball went down the line via Sharp to Henry Staff who went over for Bedford’s second try. Sharpe kicked an excellent conversion to narrow the gap to 20-31. Sarries came straight back with some nice interplay between Melck and Strettle with Melck scoring Sarries’ 4^th try. A Bedford voice behind me said “When you see Strettle you realise what an international winger looks like”. Shame that MJ doesn’t appear to! Goode took up the kicking duties and extended the lead to 20-38. As the game moved into its last few minutes a final Sarries attack saw Adam Powell loop round the Bedford forwards and score. This time Mordt took the kick and the game ended comfortably enough at 20-45.

The result probably flattered the Champions. Bedford appeared to be a good side with plenty of spirit and talent. In the first half in particular the Men in Black looked rusty and there was a fair bit of “getting to know you”, not helped by the gloom.

Strettle looked very sharp and after a dodgy start Spencer had a solid game. Brits was Brits – everywhere on the pitch and Goode and Barritt looked class. It was good to see Powell play a full 80 minutes. Hodgson is still feeling his way a bit (not surprisingly) but class will out. The pack were fairly solid although less so once Gill and Nieto departed. The jury is still out on Vunipol & Maddock but it is early days.

It was a very pleasant evening all in all. It was good to see the Premiership Champions again (even if it does mean summer is almost over) but there’s still plenty of work to do before the season proper starts. Good luck to Bedford Blues for the coming season and keep the lights on!

Teams:-

Bedford:  Burke, Schmidt, Staff, Bedford, Vincent (Bassett), Lennard (Sharp), Veenendaal (Liebenberg), Steenkamp (Walsh), Cochrane(lock), Seal  Tomes (Howard), Rae, Barrell, Harding, Fisher

Saracens: Goode, Strettle (Maddock), Powell, Barritt (Taylor), Maddock ( Watson), Hodgson (Mordt), Spencer (Bruzulier), Gill (Vanipulo), Brits (Allen), Nieto (Du Plessis), Borthwick (Kruis), Botha , Melck , Saull (Bache), Wray

Scorers:

Bedford  Tries: Cochrane, Staff   Conv: Lennard, Sharpe  Pens: Lennard (2)

Saracens:  Tries: Strettle, Spencer, Melck, Brits, Powell   Convs:  Hodgson,  Goode(2),   Mordt    Pens: Hodgson (4)

Scores (Bedford 1^st)  7-0 7-3 10-3 10-10 10-15 13-15 13-18 13-21 13-24 13-31 20-31 20-38 20-45

Referee Darren Gamage

Attendance 3,003