After a relaxing Easter break, Bedford Blues return to Championship play-off action this weekend with a challenging trip to Penzance to face the Cornish Pirates on Sunday afternoon.

Despite having three wins this season over the Cornishmen, the Blues are fully aware that they face a massive task as the hosts look to secure a semi-final place with a victory of their own.

The two teams last met in mid-March at Goldington Road with the Blues pinching the 26-25 win with the final kick of the game. During the regular season, Bedford won 24-34 at the Mennaye in October and 32-13 on New Year’s Day in the reverse fixture.

Even with the 100 per cent record and a semi-final place in the bag, Bedford Blues Forwards Coach Martin Hynes won’t be taking anything for granted on Sunday afternoon.

He said: “The play-offs have proven to be to our liking so far but we can’t rest on our laurels just because we have already made the semis. We want to finish top of the Pool and continue the good run of form that we are on. We’ve spoken all season about playing to the best of our ability for a full 80 minutes but we still haven’t done that.

“The extra weekend off has meant that a few of the lads who were carrying knocks have had time to recuperate and we can welcome them back to the squad. However the game has come too soon for Pritch, Dodgey and Gregor who are all carrying minor injuries while Darryl Veenendaal suffered an injury in training this week.

"It is a long old trip down to Penzance but games against the Pirates are always exciting and I think that everyone is raring to get back out onto the pitch again.”

Starting line-up:

15. Brendan Burke

14. Handre Schmidt

13. Henry Staff

12. Ian Vass

11. Mark Kohler

10. Jamie Lennard

9. Luke Baldwin

1. Nico Steenkamp

2. Chris Locke

3. Phil Boulton

4. Sam Pailor

5. Mike Howard

6. Jon Fisher

7. Sacha Harding (c)

8. Don Barrell

Replacements: 16. Neil Cochrane, 17. Ben Cooper, 18, Ricky Reeves, 19. Sean Tomes, 20. Darren Fox, 21. Stefan Liebenberg, 22. Jake Sharp.