Bedford 22 Carnegie 21: Failure to convert chances sees victory slip from Carnegie’s grasp

The visitors seemed set to return to the summit of the league when replacement Joel Hodgson finished off a spectacular move for his side’s third try of the game.

The move had started with winger Seb Stegmann attacking from deep in his own half and involved nearly every player in an impressive display of continuity rugby before Hodgson cut back inside to score between the posts. Leonard kicked his third conversion to make it 21-0.

However, Yorkshire failed to close out the game from there.

“We had two opportunities in the first half that we should have taken and I thought at half-time that 14-0 may not be enough given the strength of the wind we enjoyed in the first half,” said Redpath.

“We had a chance to win the game at 21-7, but we made errors that handed the momentum to Bedford and they punished us.”

Bedford appeared to have scored a consolation try when replacement forward Camilo Parilli-Ocampo dived over from close range but the home side had other ideas.

Jonah Holmes was sin-binned for offside at a ruck and Bedford made their advantage count when full-back Steffan Jones made the extra man out wide to score. Jake Sharp was only able to convert one of the tries.

Having gained a penalty at a scrum, Harry Leonard kicked for touch as his team went in search of the try bonus point instead of potentially securing the points from the kick at goal.

When Bedford managed to repel the threat and clear the ball up field, it bounced away from Pete Lucock before Bedford’s Jordan Burns appeared to knock on only for the referee to wave play on and George Perkins, who had put in the original kick, collected and raced in to score.

The conversion was added but Carnegie still had the chance to close the game out until they were caught in possession on the halfway line and referee O’Grady handed Jones the chance to win the game with virtually the last kick of the game. He did.

It was an unlikely result for the vast majority of the game. Carnegie had controlled the game well in the first half having scored tries from driven line outs through Lee Imiolek and a penalty try.

Carnegie remain in second spot heading into a two-week break from the league for the British & Irish Cup.

Redpath will be hoping his side, including the onlooking Kevin Sinfield, will have learnt valuable lessons.

Bedford Blues: Jones, Perkins, Le Bourgeois, Griffiths (Jake Sharp 62), Adamson (Pritchard 72), Dorrian, White (Jordan Burns 62), Lundberg (James 63), Clare, Alo (Parilli-Ocampo 51), Wells (Howard 51), Flanagan, Fenton-Wells (C), Buggea, Tupai (J Conlon 51).

Yorkshire Carnegie: Holmes, Seb Stegmann, Forsyth, Casson (Pete Lucock 31), Georgiou (Hodgson 43), Leonard, Dudman, Imiolek (Charlie Beech 47), Walker (Nilsen 62), O’Donnell, Myerscough, Smith (Tom Ryder 47), (C, J Barnard 69), Bainbridge, Burrows. Unused replacements: Milasinovich.

Referee: Matthew O’Grady.