Bedford Blues bags the five points on the opening weekend

Bedford Blues made the perfect start to the 2024/25 Championship campaign by running in six tries to see off Caldy 45-19 at Goldington Road.

Mike Rayer's side were irresistible in the first half, ill disciplined in the second, but managed to run away with proceedings on the scoreboard and avoid a potential banana skin on opening weekend. 

They were 31-0 up during the first-half but were dragged into a game of it by the visiting Ravers and when Blues went down to 12 men for a period after the restart, some started fearing the worst. But the team stayed strong and held on for a much needed victory to kickstart their season. 

Blues Assistant Coach, Jim Henry said: “We were scrambling around a little bit for a while and it was really needless. Fair play to Caldy because they put us under pressure but we should have stuck to task better.

“There’s plenty to fix up from that second half because Coventry are a massive challenge next week. I’d imagine some of the things we got away with, we won’t against them and we need to be better.

“It’s pretty rare to see all the points scored up the hill but that seemed to be the case for both sides.”

Blues played some unbelieveable rugby in the first half and had the bonus point wrapped up inside half hour thanks to four four well crafted tries that had Goldington Road on its feet. 

Louis James started the procession by latching on to Will Maisey's deft chip over the top, before Matt Worley scored twice and James Lennon rounded off a real team score. 

Caldy hit back on the stroke of half-time through Ollie Wynn to get on the board and they took that momentum into the second half as Blues crumbled and were in danger of throwing it away. 

Within a 30 second window, Blues lost Bryan O'Connor to the bin for a team maul offence then conceded a penalty try to lose another man, Matt Worley this time shown yellow. 

That left gaps all over the defensive line but Caldy almost seemed surprised at what was in front of them and made a total mess of the advantage they had, and Blues retaliated to score from captain, Michael Le Bourgeois. 

When Louis James was then booked for cynical play, Caldy couldn't pass up the opportunity in-front of 12 defenders and made it 38-19. 

Blues stayed firm and got the job done, adding the icing on the cake through a first in Blues colours for Toby Cousins following a real neat passage of play from a scrum. 

More Results from round 1

League standings after round 1