Bedford Blues 80 Rotherham Titans 19: Dramatic collapse consigns Rotherham to bottom

The Titans finished bottom of Pool B with only a single point to their name after the defeat at Goldington Road.

Rotherham had managed to cross the tryline three times through Mark George, Matthew Rhodes and Juan Pablo Socino before the half-time interval when the score was a respectable 26-19 to the hosts.

However, a second-half collapse of Titanic proportions saw Bedford score 54 unanswered points.

Bedford scored 12 tries in total, with captain James Pritchard leading by example as he scored two of the tries and also converted 10.

Winger Handre Schmidt scored a hat-trick and scrum-half Will Chudley – on as a second-half replacement – crossed twice.

The other tries came from Jake Sharp, Edd Thrower, Gregor Gillanders, Alex Rae and Paul Tupai.

Rotherham had threatened to spoil Bedford’s plan to get to the semi-finals when prop Mark George crossed the line after the Titans mauled from a lineout on the five-metre line, and Juan Pablo Socino added the extras to cancelled out Pritchard’s early converted try.

They then took the lead when scrum-half Matthew Rhodes finished well in the corner after finding a gap on the blindside after the Titans turned over a Bedford scrum.

But the Blues, to their credit, hit back immediately with two tries from reliable finisher Schmidt and a break from Tupai.

Rotherham ended the first period stronger when Nottingham-bound Socino found a gap in the Bedford line to score and convert his own try.

The second half rout then commenced and after the first four of eight second-half tries, several Rotherham players looked as though they were already thinking about their holidays.

Bedford Blues: Thrower, Schmidt (Burke 55), Dorrian(Bedford 71), Dodge, Pritchard, Sharp, Veenendaal (Chudley 47), Seal (Boot 71), Richmond (Locke 65), Boulton (Walsh 58), Howard, Kruis, Gillanders, Rae, Tupai (Goodman 52).

Rotherham Titans: James, Welding (Du Randt 40), Swatkins, Socino, James, Hodgson (Hunt 9), Rhodes, Kilbane (McGregor 65), Loney, George (O’Donnell 54), Harris, McGowan (Burrows 54), Doneghan (Worrall 54), Dougall, Baines.

Referee: L Apgerainp-Roberts (RFU).