Scottish have no excuse for Bedford Blues (From Your Local Guardian)

Scottish have no excuse for Bedford Blues

12:08pm Friday 28th October 2011 in London Scottish By Tom Barnes

London Scottish manager Simon Amor’s hopes of a revival following the signings of Argentine pair Alfredo Lallane and Agustin Gosio, were dashed after going down 15-41 at home to Bedford Blues, writes Tom Barnes.

The two internationals scored tries on their Exiles debuts on Saturday, but they were not enough to prevent a mauling at the hands of the Bedfordshire outfit.

Only man of the match Aaron Liffchak emerged with any credit and while Amor said the loss of fly half Dan Mugford and second row Josh Brown shortly before kick-off was a blow, it was no excuse for the hammering.

“The new boys did well. It will take time for them to bed into the side, but these are World Cup quality players and their leadership and experience will be invaluable to us in the coming months.

“I thought for 65 minutes we played well enough and hung in, but in the last 10 minutes they scored twice, which gave the scoreline an unfair reflection of how the game went.

“It is always a blow when you lose players like Mugford and Brown, but that’s no excuse because we have a quality squad.”

Bedford dominated from the outset stretching the Scottish defense and racing into a 15-0 lead with tries from flanker Sacha Harding and full back James Pritchard.

Scottish looked to have gotten an unlikely foothold in the match when new boys Lallane and then Gosio both crossed to reduce the arrears to 15-20.

But Bedford hit back with three tries of their own leaving Amor to promise better at Nottingham on Sunday.

“We look to improve our performance week on week and another week in training will give the new players a little bit of extra time to settle with us.

“Nottingham are a very good side so it will be a tough game, but we will be looking for a better result.”