Bedford head West for Plymouth showdown. Your Rugby News

Bedford head West for Plymouth showdown

04
Nov

Posted by: Bedford Blues : Midlands, The Championship

Following a humbling home defeat to former Premiership side Leeds last weekend, Bedford Blues go west in the hope of reigniting their Championship campaign as they face Plymouth Albion at Brickfields.

Games between Albion and the Blues are always tough and only three points separated the two teams in the same fixture last season which finished 24-27. Plymouth have an impressive home record this season having won four out of five while Bedford are a force to be reckoned with on the road with five wins out of six in all competitions.

Bedford travel to Plymouth with a number of long term injuries including Gregor Gillanders (ACL), Ben Lewitt (ACL), Henry Staff (broken jaw), Jon Fisher (fractured foot), Neil Cochrane (calf strain) and Ricky Reeves (nerve damage), whilst captain James Pritchard also misses out after picking up a knock last weekend.

Speaking ahead of the game Blues director of rugby Mike Rayer, said: �We�ve had to take a long, hard look at ourselves following the performance last weekend and address some of the key issues that led to Leeds coming back into that game and winning it so convincingly.

�No one is in any doubt about the expectations that we have, but as I�ve said numerous times before, the great thing about rugby is that you have the chance to put things right the following week.

�The lads now have to learn from the mistakes last week and not repeat them because if we do that against Plymouth, we will be punished again. Albion have a powerful squad who will come out all guns blazing, and we also know that they can dig deep to grind out results.

�We will have to be at the top of our game if we want to pick up an all-important and morale boosting win.�

Rayer makes a handful of changes to the team that started against Leeds last week with Brendan Burke replacing the injured Pritchard at fullback, Handre Schmidt coming in for David Vincent and Stefan Liebenberg getting the nod at nine ahead of Darryl Veenendaal. Nico Steenkamp and Phil Boulton prop the scrum instead of Sam Walsh and Dan Seal while Sean Tomes returns to the second row and Paul Tupai starts at number eight while Ian Vass is named as a replacement for the first time this season.

Starting line-up

15. Brendan Burke

14. Handre Schmidt

13. Ollie Dodge

12. Tom Bedford

11. Josh Bassett

10. Jake Sharp

9. Stefan Liebenberg

1.Nico Steenkamp

2. Chris Locke

3. Phil Boulton

4. Mike Howard