With the wind at their backs the Saints team were rarely out of the Bedford 22 and were denied further scores by some good last ditch defence from Bedford and some poor execution and lapses of concentration with the try line at the mercy. Storey added his second try out wide from a well worked first phase move which opened up a 20-point lead.
Crucially the Saints suffered two nasty injuries with wing Corey Rainbow and lock Jack Sharp, who had dominated the lineout all afternoon, both coming off. Bedford scored a well taken try which was excellently converted to narrow the gap, only for Saints full back Adam Martin to show electric pace to out-sprint the covering Bedford defence for his score in the corner.
With 10 minutes to go and Saints looking certain to extend their lead, a loose pass led to an interception try for Bedford who ran the length of the pitch. And a further try was conceded by Saints to set up a nervy final five minutes. It was Saints who controlled the final few minutes of the match but were denied any further scores to finish 27-31 ahead.
The Junior Saints Academy will be hosting USA U18s at Franklin’s Gardens on Tuesday, April 1st at 5:30pm.
Meanwhile Senior Academy members Joe Gray and John Brake both played in England Under-20's fourth win of the Six Nations. For Brake it was his debut at this level and he, Gray and the rest of the squad now have Ireland to beat on Friday night at Kingsholm to achieve the Grand Slam.
"We’re a positive unit and at the start of the week we said that we wanted to raise the bar, not get distracted by the possibility of a Grand Slam game to come against Ireland," said England coach Mark Mapletoft. “We’ve been ticking off each task, we were able to handle the distraction of Ben’s sending off and the way we dealt with the second half was outstanding.
“Each side has offered us a different challenge and this was about the high expectations and the pressure."
