Saints hooker Marshall enjoys productive return in Bedford success

Reece Marshall and several other Saints players enjoyed a hugely productive outing for Bedford Blues last weekend.
Reece MarshallReece Marshall
Reece Marshall

Marshall started at hooker as he helped the Blues to see off local rivals Ampthill in 'The Battle of Bedfordshire' .

Manny Iyogun, Marshall and Ed Prowse made up an all-Saints front row for Bedford, with Iyogun scoring a fine try in the 53-34 Championship success.

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Brandon Nansen, Connor Tupai and Tom Litchfield also started for the Blues, while Karl Wilkins came off the bench to get his first minutes of the season.

Nansen and Wilkins were summer signings for Saints and have been sent to Bedford to get game time before making their Northampton debuts.

For Marshall, his outing last weekend was his first since returning from injury.

And he enjoyed being part of the Blues victory.

"It's a big game nowadays and Ampthill are a lot bigger club that what they were," Marshall said. "It was a good game to be involved in.

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"You try to not let emotion take control because that's when you start losing what your plan is.

"We were pretty down to earth and it showed in the way we executed our plays.

"I actually went on loan to Ampthill when I was younger, I played against them and my dad played for both Bedford and Ampthill so I've now played for both and it was good to be involved.

"It was good to get a feel for both sides and I'm glad we could get the win last weekend."

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Former Saints wing Matt Worley was named man of the match for Bedford after bagging a hat-trick, while another ex-Northampton wing, Jamie Elliott, was also among the scorers.

The victory against Ampthill means Bedford have now won two of their three league games so far this season.

"It was a very scrappy game, very stop-start," Marshall added.

"We played some unbelievable rugby at times and showed what we can do, but at times we did what we said we weren't going to do and we let them back in the game.

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"Ampthill are a side who can bring you into that maul and brawl part of the game, which we stepped up to, but it's something we're not as strong at as when we use our backs and play from there.

"We knew if we wanted to win the game we had to take care of the lineout and the scrum.

"At scrum time, we managed it really well and made the right decisions at the right time.

"At lineout, we had a slow start but as the game went on we got some rhythm and tempo and put them on the back foot."