Blues looking to raid the Pirates


By TryBlues
December 8 2025

Next up for Blues are the Pirates. Blues have had a good recent history at Pirates, which is unusual given it being a tricky place to go. This time however, we won't be going early season and now in the winter, where the pitch can be heavy making it into a big battle.

Blues are 5 points clear of Pirates and also beat them in pre-season. We will be welcoming back a lot of our first team players, but an area where Pirates were strong and Blues were weak last week was the breakdown and we need to make sure when we do go into contact we have a supporting player. A few times against Cambridge we were caught out.

I expect a lot of changes, and from the Cambridge game I am thinking there will be maybe 2 or 3 starting in the pack and 2 in the backs. I envisage a team like

15 James

14 Hutler

13 Titheringtoin

12 Le Bourgeois

11 Adamson

10 Maisey

9 Day/Lennon

8 Uru

7 Tuilagi

6 Slyvester

5 Benson/Ward

4 Woolford

3 Heffernan

2 Herman/Fish - could be either

1 Jack

 

16 Conway - hopefully

17 Fish/Herman

18 Tonga uiha

19 Ward/Benson

20 Finch

21 Lennon

22 Price

23 Worth

Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: Blues Brothers (IP Logged)
Date: 08/12/2025 00:08

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Re: Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: compo simonite (IP Logged)
Date: 08/12/2025 19:40

After last week's game this is a difficult game to call, always a hard game for the Blues, throw in the forecast rain of the next few days on the the Pirates 'pristine' pitch heaven knows what might happen......your thoughts?

Re: Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: Bluesman23 (IP Logged)
Date: 11/12/2025 12:31

Team back to first choice 15. Slightly surprised to see Worth on the wing ahead of Hutler especially as forecast is dry. Would’ve started Sylvester too.

Re: Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: TryBlues (IP Logged)
Date: 11/12/2025 13:05

I guess Hutler may not be fully fit yet. Worth may not be electric but is very consistent with his performances with a great rugby brain. I agree with Sylvester I think he’s our best lineout forward, but good to have Conway and Tonga uiha back. It makes a huge difference having 2 decent props on the bench

Bedford Blues starting XV:

15. Louis James, 14. George Worth, 13. Lucas Titherington, 12. Michael Le Bourgeois, 11. Dean Adamson, 10. Will Maisey, 9. Alex Day (C); 1. Jamie Jack, 2. Tommy Herman, 3. Oisin Heffernan, 4. Rory Ward, 5, Alex Woolford, 6. Fred Tuilagi, 7. Archie Benson, 8. Tui Uru

Bedford Blues Replacements:

16. James Fish, 17. Joey Conway, 18. Sonny Tonga’uiha, 19. Kayde Sylvester, 20. Nicholas Finch, 21. James Lennon, 22. Tom Price, 23. Ryan Hutler

Unavailable for selection this week:

Archie Hosking, Rafe Witheat

Re: Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: TryBlues (IP Logged)
Date: 12/12/2025 21:14

Blues were almost made to pay for not making their 2nd half pressure tell.

Another good win in Cornwall and a vital 5 points that not many achieve and extends our winning record.

I thought we were very powerful with big carries but seemed to make a silly error that stopped the momentum. Our attack is very quick which is hard for the opposition to deal with but perhaps sometimes a little too quick leading to errors.

Hope Tuilagi will be back for next week.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2025:12:12:23:00:32 by TryBlues.

Re: Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: Bluesman23 (IP Logged)
Date: 12/12/2025 22:25

A great result in what I thought was an excellent game between 2 good teams that could’ve gone either way. Thought when we didn’t turn about 10 mins of prolonged pressure into any points and then pirates went immediately up the pitch and scored it wasn’t going to be our day but showed great character to pinch it at the end. The bench has been a real area of strength this season and it made no end of difference having a quality front row to bring on when we were struggling in the scrum but always thought we had more firepower than Pirates on the bench.

Biggest game of the season next week. Fingers crossed for Tuilagi as he would be a huge loss. Hopefully we get dry conditions. Expect Conway to start and probably the usual hooker rotation, maybe Hutler if conditions suit but otherwise a very similar 23.

Re: Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: Old blue (IP Logged)
Date: 12/12/2025 22:28

I thought the very heavy pitch didn’t help our quick tempo game but they battled well for the victory. Will Maisey was not his usual accurate self from the tee which put a bit of extra pressure on us.
The bench coming on had a really good impact.
Watched on Clubber and thought the commentary team were way better than for the pre season game.
Looking forward to Worcester and a victory to secure our second place!

Re: Blues looking to raid the Pirates
Posted by: compo simonite (IP Logged)
Date: 13/12/2025 08:01

Nail-biting being a Blues Supporter.....!

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