Miserable ending for a Bedford legend

JAMES Pritchard is resigned to the fact he won’t get the fairytale finish to his illustrious Bedford career that he desires, or quite possibly deserves, after being left feeling like “spare baggage” in his 12th and final season at the Blues.
Since reporting back from World Cup duty with Canada, Pritchard, Bedford’s record points scorer with just shy of 3,000 points, has been restricted to just two starts on the wing because of the form of Piers O’Conor, February’s Championship Player of the Month, and Steffan Jones in his preferred number 15 jersey.
The 36-year-old’s long association with the club, dating back to 2001, will come to an end this summer when he joins rivals Coventry as player-coach.
“Obviously I’d like another run out at Bedford but only on merit not for sentimental reasons. I don’t think would happen anyway because of the big games we’ve got coming up,” he told The Rugby Paper.
“It’s been a very disappointing season for me, I’ve felt like spare baggage since I got back from the World Cup.
“I went to Ampthill around Christmas time to get a bit of game time and rediscovered my love of running around playing footy again.
“They asked me to stay until the end of the season but I’m a stubborn bugger and I wanted to get back to Bedford to try and win my place back.
“That hasn’t eventuated but it hasn’t stopped me putting my hand up in training every week.”
Pritchard’s last game for Bedford was against Ulster Ravens in the B&I Cup, on 21 November 2015.
“It’s been tough going down to the club on match days because people come up to me and ask, ‘why aren’t you playing?’ he admitted.
“No player wants to sit and watch from the sidelines; you want to be out there on the field.
“I’ll be leaving with a heavy heart but sometimes you have to cut your ties and move on. Not everybody gets the fairytale ending that they’d hoped for.”
While Pritchard doesn’t have a bad word to say about “his home for 13 years”, the former Randwick full-back believes it’s time the club clarified its stance on promotion.
“Every single player in that squad wants to play Premiership rugby and the players aren’t really sure where the club stands with that. Are they happy being a feeder club to Saracens or do they actually want to compete with Saracens in the Premiership?
“When we played Newcastle in the final a few years ago, we still didn’t know what would happen if we won, there was some doubt floating around.
“As players we just had to leave that off-field stuff with Geoff (Irvine, club chairman) and the rest of the board.
“Geoff has alluded to the fact he might step away and there are some great ideas floating around from people who’d be interested in developing Goldington Road so that it could house Premiership rugby.
“I’d love to see that happen because Bedford is a real rugby stronghold.”
Pritchard added: “One of the things that attracted me to Coventry is the fact that they’ve mapped out what they want to do and have put a timeline in place to achieve those goals.
“Coventry are not afraid to let people know they are ambitious. They want to push for the Championship and they’ve got the infrastructure and the money and the backing behind them to do that.”
Pritchard will be joined at the Butts Park Arena next season by another of Bedford’s longest-serving players, prop Phil Boulton.
JON NEWCOMBE