THE Malvern U17 Pirates' dream of reaching the final of the Midlands U17 Shield ended last Sunday when they were beaten 25-0 by Bedford Blues Juniors.

BEDFORD BLUES JUNIORS 25pts, MALVERN U17 PIRATES 0

The day got off to a terrible start with snow hampering the arrival of players from rural parts. In addition, the loss of five key players overnight because of work and Duke of Edinburgh commitments meant that four U16s were asked to step up a level and join the travelling squad to Bedford.

With only 45 minutes warm-up, not surprisingly Malvern were slow to start and against a determined home side with a baying crowd and a stiff breeze behind them, the Pirates were forced on to the back foot from the start.

The Malvern backline, usually so dependable on the counter-attack failed to get into its stride and after a series of uncharacteristic handling errors, Bedford struck with a well-placed kick and chase to the corner. A second try was gifted to Bedford ten minutes later from an identical run of events and with a third try added before the break, Malvern were 17-0 down.

After the break, with Malvern's man-of-the-match Sam Jones urging the forwards to take the game by the scruff of the neck, things started to look-up.

The Blues were not keen on countering the pick-and-drive style of the Malvern pack and with defenders lying around the tackle zone the Bedford tacklers were treated to a good old Gloucester style 'shoeing'. Surprisingly the obstructive tactic by Bedford was left unpunished by the referee who instead penalised Malvern for 'dangerous' play.

From the resulting penalty, Malvern lost flanker Chris Reed to the sin-bin for 10 minutes and Bedford kicked for the corner and their forwards drove over and claimed a try.

The U16 players were then called upon to save the day and Chris Griffiths and Josh Pickering displayed their qualities in defence while Oli Rayner at out-half added a bit of charisma to what was up until then a very dull day out for the Malvern backs.

Jack Knowles came on for Jones who moved to outside centre to replace the injured David Morgans and the feisty Joel Redman replaced Tom King at hooker.

Despite conceding a penalty goal, Malvern ended the match deep in the Blues half, but with so little left in the arsenal to break through the hosts defence, the Pirates had to finally admit they were second best on the day and out of the competition.

Head coach Gary Tolley was clearly disappointed for his team and the result.

He said: "The Blues got off to a good start but all we had to do was to keep hold of the ball and show some composure and maturity. We didn't do that and during the first 20 minutes the handling and kicking from our backs was quite shocking.

"There were glimpses in the second period when we could have made a come back. The pack started to get on top, we got a bit of ball and started to find a few holes. I think the referee should have shown a few yellow cards to Bedford for not clearing the rucks because that really slowed things down for us and eventually cost us a player in the bin. It really wasn't our day and that's that."

Bedford now go on to play in the Shield final against Droitwich, who destroyed Stafford by 51-5 at home.

Meanwhile, the Pirates friendlies for the next two weekends and return to league duty with an away match against Ludlow on Sunday, April 2.