Bedford Blues 23 Moseley 7

Despite a promising start to Friday night’s match at Goldington Road Moseley slumped to their sixth defeat of the season as the Blues ground out a victory in the latter stages.

Brad Davies` boot put the Blues ahead after 13 minutes only for Moseley to respond with a well worked try for Mike Gillick converted by Borgen.

But as the visitors squandered a host of opportunities to increase their lead Gillanders scored the opening try for Bedford and Davies converted for a 10-7 half-time lead.

Davies added two further penalties after the break with full-back Luke Fielden taking his try scoring tally for the season to six as he touched down after 56 minutes.

Blues forwards coach Martin Hynes told Bedfordshire on Sunday, “ All the lads are elated that we’ve got the four points,” said forwards coach Martin Hynes.

“It seems to have been a long time coming and it was certainly ugly but sometimes that’s the way it has to be. There’s times when you can play fantastic, flowing rugby and lose so we are more than happy with the result.

“After the injury problems that we have had it was also nice to see some of the boys returning. I thought Gregor Gillanders had a great game and Mike Howard made an impact when he came on as did Brendan Burke.

“But credit to the 22, they all played their part and there are guys like Paul Tupai who are still putting in the big hits while carrying knocks and never complaining. It goes to show the spirit in the lads that we have and they never stop plugging away.”

Full story.. www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk

Birmingham & Solihull 6 Coventry 21

Coventry won the early kick-off on Saturday at Sharmans Cross Road with a performance described by the Birmingham Mail as “powerful but witless”.

Brian Dick, writing in the Birmingham Post, went further commenting, “Coventry escaped Solihull with a vital four points despite offering a performance that at times verged on the clueless.”

In a lacklustre match Coventry took a 16-6 interval lead through a penalty try converted by Joey Carlisle and a hat-trick of penalties from the on-loan fly-half. The Bees countered with two penalties of their own from Simon Hunt.

Early in the second half however Hunt turned villain as his complete hash of a clearance from inside his own 22 gifted Fangatapu Apikotoa a simple second try for the visitors.

The Bees offered practically nothing as an offensive threat and their meagre playing resources have been stretched further with the news that back row Chris Brightwell has joined Bedford Blues.

Brian Dick concluded, “As a result this was nothing to speak of in terms of a spectacle and the 477 who turned up in such apocalyptic weather should be applauded for their loyalty or sectioned for their own safety.

And to make matters worse they couldn’t even drown their sorrows or celebrate because the hosts’ licence expired with their previous incarnation.”

Full story.. hwww.birminghampost.net/midlands

Coventry boss Phil Maynard was however happy with his team`s performance. He told the Coventry Telegraph, “After our display against London Welsh a week ago it was vital to win and that brings added pressure, but we did well today.”

“It wasn’t a great performance, but the commitment and effort was what we were looking for – I could see the lads were really trying. We needed this to build some confidence.”

“I don’t think we made too many errors, apart from ones that were forced as they defended very well. It was no surprise that Bees came at us, they have been doing that to everyone despite all that has happened here.”

Full story.. www.coventrytelegraph.net/coventry

Exeter Chiefs 22 Cornish Pirates 15

Match report on this site can be found here.. www.cornish-pirates.com

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

Rob Baxter and Chris Stirling speak to the WMN.. http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/rugby/Exeter

London Welsh 12 Plymouth Albion 26

London Welsh produced arguably their worst performance of the season at Old Deer Park on Saturday as Plymouth Albion tore up the form book returning to Devon with a five-point haul.

The Welsh were ahead after just two minutes as Dominic Shabbo crossed for a converted try and despite Sean-Michael Stephen claiming the first try of the afternoon for Albion after 15 minutes, increased their lead to 12-5 minutes later with a second from Shabbo.

But in poor weather conditions the second half belonged entirely to Albion and fourteen points inside the first five minutes of the second period decided the game, as the Welsh were reduced to fourteen men.

Keni Fisilau scored the first try with Wayne Sprangle, areplacement for the injured Stephen, adding the next. Both were converted by Davies. A penalty try 12 minutes from time as the home side illegally halted a driving maul killed off any hopes of a late Welsh revival.

Albion chairman of rugby Graham Dawe told The Herald, “London Welsh's two tries came off elementary errors from us, which was disappointing, but overall I thought we defended very well.”

"We didn't make a great start but we had 70 minutes to get it right and that is what the boys did. Our record away from home this year hasn't been good, so we will enjoy the win. But it will only be a good win if we can back it up with another good performance against Leinster this weekend."

Full story.. www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/albion

Match report.. www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/albion/-happy-hunting

Rotherham Titans 11 Doncaster Knights 7

The Titans ended the recent revival at Doncaster claiming their first win in seven outings against their South Yorkshire rivals in difficult conditions at Clifton Lane.

Rotherham`s pack proved to be the cornerstone of their success as they adapted better to the conditions and led 11-0 at the break after a try from Gregor Hayter added to a brace of Jonny West penalties.

Doncaster, who slipped back into the bottom two in the table after this defeat, battled hard in the second period but even with home centre PJ Gidlow yellow carded were unable to break through until they were awarded a penalty try 10 minutes from time.

In a gripping finale the Titans defended their line to the last man for a famous win.

Afterwards Titans prop Ben Prescott told the Sheffield Star, "It was an outstanding performance. We dogged it out. In a derby game at home against Doncaster, you raise your game. We had to keep going and going in the last 10 minutes. We turned over their ball and that won it.”

"Doncaster have put in a lot of money and people say they have edged away from us. This performance proves otherwise. It's not about the amount of money you spend, it is inside the ticker that counts."

Match report.. www.thestar.co.uk/rugbyunion/Brave-Titans

Knights boss Lynn Howells said, “They were the better team; we just didn't turn up.

"They adapted to the conditions better than we did. Our forward play was much better than Rotherham's and we scored a penalty try. It was our lineouts which let us down.”

"I think that we had something like 11 lineouts and we won only about three of them. You are not going to win any game with those sort of statistics.”

"We played into the wind in the first half and we came in 11-0 down. I thought that we had done enough in the first half to win the game in the second, but there were several things that didn't work out as we had hoped.”

Full story.. h/www.thestar.co.uk/rugbyunion

Bristol 35 Nottingham 11

Bristol reached the half-way point of the Championship regular season with a comfortable five-try demolition job of a faltering Nottingham side.

The visitors opened the scoring with a 12 th minute penalty from Greig Tonks but with half an hour played the home side finally got into the game with a converted try from Jack Adams.

Tonks notched a second penalty but with skipper Craig Hammond sin-binned Bristol turned the screw just before the break with a penalty try. Minutes after the restart Dan Norton added a third try again converted by Jarvis.

Further tries from Tom Arscott and prop Mark Irish secured the bonus point and took the game away from Nottingham before Tim Streather crossed for a late consolation.

Match report.. www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/rugby

Bristol forwards coach John Brain told the Evening Post that yesterday was a very satisfying afternoon at the Memorial Stadium.

He said, “They defended quite well early on and we didn't execute as well as we would normally, so we spent 10 minutes attacking and got nothing out of it – and then they got three points from their first incursion into our half.

"That was a bit disappointing, but the guys continued to work extremely hard. Nottingham had spells in our 22 in the first half where we defended well and turned the ball over – and those are key moments in a game against a top side like Nottingham.”

"They're a well-organised team and when we go to their place, that will be a very, very tough game."

Full story..www.thisisbristol.co.uk/bristolrugby