Bristol 37 Bedford Blues 16

The Blues failed to win for the third Championship game in a row as Bristol staged a strong second half fight back to claim maximum points and keep the heat on faltering Exeter.

On a cold night at the Memorial Stadium the Blues took the lead through a Pritchard penalty only for Lee Robinson to respond with a try for the home side after Myles Dorrian had gifted them an interception. Jarvis converted but a second Pritchard penalty reduced the arrears to a solitary point.

The Blues then took the lead as Arscott made a meal of a bouncing ball in his own half and Ian Davey seized possession before feeding Ollie Dodge for Bedford’s only try of the match. Pritchard converted and added a further penalty to go with a Jarvis effort to leave the Blues 16-10 ahead at half-time.

But Bristol showed no mercy after the break and stepped up the tempo which proved punishing for the visitors. The power of the Bristol pack set up Jack Adams for the first of four unanswered second half tries and Mark Irish soon chipped in with the second.

Full-back Arscott was the next to score before a final touchdown from replacement fly-half Sam Giddens as the Blues lost their shape.

Match report www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk

Bristol view www.thisisbristol.co.uk

Bristol try scorer Jack Adams has already got his sights set on downing Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Sunday.

The centre told the Evening Post, “ This is a huge week for both teams and, whatever happens, we showed against Bedford that we can come from points down and score lots of tries.

"Exeter came here earlier in the season and won, so it would certainly be nice to go down there and win. If they lose, they're not going to look at it as 'Oh my God, we're not going to get promoted' and nor are we.

"But at the same time, the next game is massive – and this is a huge time of the season as we head into the new year."

Full story www.thisisbristol.co.uk

Coventry 12 Cornish Pirates 27

Website match report www.cornish-pirates.com

Western Morning News view /www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

Coventry Telegraph report www.coventrytelegraph.net

Doncaster Knights 14 Moseley 3

The Knights ground out a narrow victory in the snow at Castle Park to climb above the Midlanders in to 8th place in the Championship table.

The Yorkshire side took an early lead as centre Hudson Tonga`uiha rounded off a five-metre attacking lineout to smash his way across the Moseley line. Warnock converted as the Midlanders then set about testing the capacity of the sin-bin.

Skipper Neil Mason was the first to see yellow just before tha half hour although Tristan Roberts was able to slot their only points via a penalty in his absence.

Scrum-half Taylor and lock Andy Hall were also banished and in the opening minute of the second half Doncaster made the game safe. This time it was flanker Boyde who crossed the line near the posts and Warnock duly obliged with the conversion.

Doncaster Free Press Report www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk

Birmingham Mail version hwww.birminghammail.net

In other news Moseley scrum-half Andy Williams has joined Gloucester on a month long loan deal.

Williams joined the Billesley Common side in the summer after a back injury ended his stay at Newport Gwent Dragons. He hopes to do enough in the next four weeks to earn a full-time contract at Kingsholm.

The make-weight in the deal is half-back Jordi Pasqualin who returns to Moseley where he spent much of last season.

London Welsh 30 Rotherham Titans 24

The Titans left Old Deer Park with two priceless points in the fight against relegation but it could and should have been all five as they let slip a strong lead in the final quarter.

With 55 minutes on the clock the Titans led 24-13 and the recent winning run of the Welsh was coming to an end. But a loose kick by the Titans gave Guy Mercer a starightforward score on the hour. Nine minutes later defensive confusion resulted in Number 8 Tom Brown scoring for the home side before former Titans flyer Errie Claasens clinched the victory with his second try in the 72 nd minute.

The result was a bitter disappointment to the Clifton Lane side who earlier in the game had scored four tries of their own. Kevin Maggs, Brad Hunt, Andrew Henderson and Adam Kleeberger, with his first try for the club, all looked to have down enough to secure a priceless victory.

Yorkshire Post report www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

London Welsh head coach Danny Wilson told the Richmond & Twickenham Times that a win here was vital in the build-up to the Christmas fixtures for his team www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk

Plymouth Albion 23 Exeter Chiefs 13

The Chiefs finally surrendered their unbeaten run in the Championship at the fourteenth time of asking against a determined Plymouth Albion side leaving Head Coach Rob Baxter fuming that the game took place at all.

On a hard pitch and in heavy rain the Chiefs went down with barely a whimper as Albion`s Route-One rugby proved too much for Exeter`s attritional style of play. Baxter, clearly incensed by the events of the day told The Herald,

“The biggest factor which disappoints me the most is that the whole day has been a little bit too much about Plymouth Albion.”

"I know when you travel to an away ground that is likely to happen, but at the end of the day the pitch was not fit enough to play a game of rugby on and it was dangerous in several areas.”

"We didn't want to play and Plymouth obviously did, so the officials made the decision. Our concern, though, was over the whole state of the pitch. The decision to go ahead happened, which was out of my hands, but then you just have to get on with.

After that I felt the whole momentum of the day went too much for Plymouth for my liking. I will look at the DVD and see what I think, but that was my initial impressions of the game."

Full story www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Plymouth Albion chairman of rugby Graham Dawe`s response to the Chiefs` furore was suitably low key. He told the same newspaper,

“I think the pitch has to be deemed dangerous before we can stop a game of rugby. I wasn't involved with any discussions before the game, but as far as I was concerned the pitch was fine.

However, I did change my boots before the game. I put long studs on ."

Full story www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Albion secured their first league victory over the Chiefs in almost four years by shaking the visitors to their very core from the first exchanges.

Exeter were surprisingly never able to match the intensity and desire of Albion and fell behind to a penalty try after 15 minutes as they repeatedly pulled down a rumbling Albion maul.

When home prop Martin Rice was sin-binned midway through the half the Chiefs profited through a brace of Steenson penalties but wasted several other good opportunities to stamp their authority on the contest. Albion bided their time and once back to fifteen extended their lead to 10-6 with a Davies penalty right on half-time.

Davies added two further second half penalties as frustrations reached boiling point in the Chiefs camp resulting in lock Chris Bentley being banished to the sin bin.

Then on 62 minutes a penalty kicked to touch set up a trademark Albion driving maul and as the Chiefs wilted under the pressure Keni Fisilau claimed the try. Davies landed a difficult conversion for a 23-6 lead.

Chiefs wing Mark Foster did claim a consolation score ten minutes from the end converted by Steenson, but Plymouth Albion thoroughly deserved their moment in the sun.

Match report www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

Bees v Nottingham postponed