Dickson’s move to Bedford confirmed

As revealed in The Rugby Paper on Sunday, Bedford Blues have bolstered their ranks with Northampton scrum-half Lee Dickson ahead of next season.
The former England international, 32, makes the move to Goldington Road having played 250 games for Saints since joining from Newcastle Falcons in 2008. Only Stephen Myler and Dylan Hartley have made more first team appearances for the Saints out of the current squad.
Lee featured in eight Cup finals, including both the 2014 Premiership and Challenge Cup finals and was also a try scorer as the Saints won the LV= Cup for the first time in 2010 as well as crossing the whitewash again in the 2013 Premiership final.
After making his England debut in the 2012 Six Nations as a replacement in England’s first match under new head coach Stuart Lancaster against Scotland at Murrayfield, Dickson went on to be capped 18 times by his country.
Blues Director of Rugby Mike Rayer said: “To be able to sign a player of Lee’s quality is a real coup for the club and everybody is excited to welcome him and his experience to Goldington Road.
“Lee could easily have stayed in the Premiership but he has a desire to progress in coaching while continuing to play and Bedford is the perfect place for him to do so. Not only does this give us a great option at number nine, but young players will learn so much from him very much like Will Chudley and Ali Price did under the tutelage of Nick Walshe a few seasons ago.
“I’m sure that the Bedford Blues faithful will be delighted with this signing which shows a clear intent from the club to push on in the Championship next season.”
Dickson added: “The move came about because of my brother. I was thinking about what I wanted to do in the next couple of years, whether that was continue playing or having a look at other things and I was chatting with Karl who mentioned that Bedford would be the perfect fit for me. Karl spoke to Mike Rayer, I then had a chat and arranged to come down to talk things through and after an hour of being at the club I made my mind up.
“Northampton will always be in my heart as it is a club I’ve played for for nine years but this is professional rugby and you have to look to the future rather than the past. I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my life with Bedford Blues.
“Bedford play a great brand of rugby here which really suits me. We played against the Blues a few weeks ago and at times they ran us ragged so I’m really excited about being involved. There’s a very talented backline at Bedford and I hope that I can pass on some of my experiences to these guys.”