Coventry 15 Bedford Blues 15

In the match which very nearly didn`t take place Coventry came from behind scoring three late unconverted tries to stun Bedford Blues at the Ricoh Arena.

After a week dominated by the financial woes of the Midlanders an estimated crowd of 1500 turned up at the home of Coventry City Football Club to pay the players wages.

The Blues strolled into a 5 th minute lead with a try from Ollie Dodge and increased their advantage to 12-0 as Neil Roberts touched down on the stroke of half-time with Myles Dorrian converting.

Dorrian added a penalty against his former club three minutes after the restart and in a match which saw three yellow cards the Blues were surely coasting to victory. But as the game lost its structure in the latter stages Coventry took the initiative.

Using their pack as a formidable battering ram they forced Bedford backwards bit by bit eventually being rewarded with a try from James Hall in the 62nd minute. Four minutes later centre Drew Locke made space for Aaron Carpenter and the Canadian flanker barged over the Bedford line.

Then with time almost up Carpenter struck again as he broke off a 5 metre scrum for his second try of the night. Fly-half Joey Carlisle had the headline writers poised as he struck his conversion attempt only to see it and hopes of victory fade away into the Coventry night.

Match report www.coventrytelegraph.net

The Bedford view www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk

Latest news on the Coventry financial situation – Cov go into administration www.coventrytelegraph.net

Doncaster Knights 9 Exeter Chiefs 14

In a match described by one respected journalist as “awful” the Chiefs made it 12 out of 12 as Chris Budgen`s 77 th minute try thwarted a second-half revival by the home side.

Two early penalties from Gareth Steenson gave Exeter a 6-0 lead before Ali Warnock nicked one back for the Knights. A Matt Cornwell drop goal after half an hour increased the Chiefs` advantage to 9-3 and so it stayed until ten minutes from time.

Doncaster had chances to score during that period but it took a 70 th minute penalty from full-back Steve McColl followed a minute later by a Warnock drop goal to make a game of it at 9-9.

But as they have done so often this season the Chiefs re-grouped and three minutes from time an unstoppable driving maul trundled over the home line with Budgen claiming his third try of the season.

Exeter head coach Rob Baxter told the Western Morning News,

“Sometimes you win ugly and you win late in the game and you sneak it. I don't think we sneaked it. We probably got a result we deserved, but we made hard work of it.

"However, as long as the players keep showing the endeavour they are showing at the moment, and keep working hard and have that kind of desire to win and stick in to games, then we will be fine."

Match report hwww.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

Doncaster Free Press www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk

Knights boss Lynn Howells told The Star,

“Exeter are good, clinical side and the best team in the league, but a lot of people won't have enjoyed the game because of the amount of kicking.

"People pay good money to be entertained and I wouldn't have thought that they will have found the game entertaining, or exciting, apart from the fact the scores were so close. We knew that they didn't play a lot of rugby and that they kicked a lot for position.

"We defended well and our discipline was good, but overall we didn't play as well as in recent games.”

Full story www.thestar.co.uk/rugbyunion

London Welsh 19 Nottingham 14

After two successive home defeats in the Championship London Welsh returned to winning ways against an under-strength Nottingham side in front of a crowd of just 910 at Old Deer Park.

Early tries from Jonathan Mills and Dan George coupled with a brace of penalties from Ed Lewis-Pratt against a solitary shot at goal from Tim Taylor for the visitors, left the Exiles 16-3 up heading towards half-time.

Dan Hemingway got the only try of the afternoon for Nottingham late in the first half before Lewis-Pratt`s third succesful penalty made it 19-8 to the Welsh.

Two further penalties from Taylor edged Nottingham into bonus point country but the home side hung on to win.

Match report /www.london-welsh.co.uk

Glenn Delaney claims that youth is the key to the future of rugby in Nottingham www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

Moseley 19 Cornish Pirates 20

Arguably the come-back of the Championship season to date!

Match report from this site

Western Morning News view www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

Birmingham Mail report www.birminghammail.net

Moseley coach Ian Smith told the Birmingham Mail that his team`s first half performance cost them victory in the mud and rain at Billesley Common www.birminghammail.net

Plymouth Albion 20 Rotherham Titans 15

Plymouth Albion climbed out of the bottom four with a hard fought win over fellow relegation contenders Rotherham Titans at Brickfields.

In a dour first half the Titans took a 21 st minute lead through a Mike Whitehead penalty only for Alex Davies to level for Albion three minutes later.

Despite strong Albion pressure late in the first half Rotherham held out and took the lead again with a Jon Skurr try after eight minutes of the second period. But that was the wake-up call Albion needed and they responded with ten points of their own.

Davies added a second penalty and then converted scrum-half Ruaidhri Cushion`s try to give Albion a 13-8 lead.

Wing Ben Mercer made the game safe ten minutes from time as he touched down and Davies once again converted. But with hooker Joe Clark sin-binned Albion conceded late try to Jon Feeley converted by West as the Titans snatched a vital bonus point.

Match report www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Graham Dawe told The Herald afterwards, “We have now got Bedford away and we are just building to where we want to be come the end of February. We just have to try and keep accumulating points, while enjoying the game. Hopefully, crowds will also come along and enjoy the rugby.

"We did try and play some rugby on Saturday. We did get some penalties trying to play some midfield rugby.”

"Full credit to the boys for looking after the ball. Our back-row were again outstanding in the rucks. Rory Watts-Jones put a massive amount of pressure on and he picked up a couple of outstanding turnovers, so full marks to the back-row. Mikey Lewis also put a lot of pressure on in the line-out. We just played like a team, which is the ultimate aim."

Full story www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

The Herald also reports that, “Albion have been called to appear before an RFU hearing on 4th January to explain how they ended up fielding 16 players for a brief period during their win over Nottingham at the end of October.

A mix-up with the replacements saw three Albion players come on but only two initially go off. The error was corrected at the next stoppage, but Nottingham made an official complaint to the sport's governing body.”

Bristol 28 Birmingham & Solihull 0

Although the predicted avalanche of points never happened at the Memorial Stadium Bristol did enough to ensure maximum points as they scored four tries against a depleted Bees side.

Ravaged by injuries and illness the Bees set about stifling Bristol but conceded three tries at regular intervals during the first period. Junior Fatialofa struck first after quarter of an hour followed by Johnston (23 mins) and Shaw (39). Jarvis converted all three scores.

Bristol only managed one further converted try in the second half which came by virtue of a penalty try with Rob Bell duly sin-binned for persistent infringing.

Afterwards Bristol skipper Roy Winters vowed that his side would improve. He told the Evening Post,

“You have to give Birmingham some credit, they were very competitive at the breakdown and made life difficult. But it was a frustrating game for us – we turned over a lot of ball, did not always have full control of what we were trying to do and found it difficult to build any momentum.”

Full story www.thisisbristol.co.uk

Bees’ assistant coach Eugene Martin told the Birmingham Mail,

“Given the players that we had available for selection with some playing out of position I thought the effort was unbelievable so I am very proud of the lads.

“Our defence on the line was tremendous and the guys stuck to their guns with a simple game plan. But this is all pre-season stuff for us as the play-offs are our lifeline to avoid relegation.”

Full story www.birminghammail.net