Rugby: Cooke comes on to tackle referee

Rotherham 11 Bedford 3

Martin Offiah's exceptional weekend, which started with Friday's attendance at Buckingham Palace to receive his MBE, was overshadowed by Geoff Cooke's extraordinary intervention at half-time of a League Two clash disfigured by several bouts of violence.

Cooke, the former England team-manager who is now director of rugby at Bedford came on to the pitch to argue with the referee, Chris Rees, after Bedford's Norm Hadley had been shown a yellow card for punching. Rotherham's rugby manager, Steve Cousins, angered by Cooke's apparent purpose to influence Rees, said: "We shall be making a strong protest to the RFU. Cooke is a high-profile figure in English rugby and his intention to bring pressure on the referee was disgraceful."

For Offiah, as in all good fairy stories there was a happy ending. Indeed, there were two happy endings, if not three. In the first place, Bedford won to keep up their promotion challenge, although they had to endure some anxious moments.

Secondly Offiah, having missed a couple of tackles as his only contribution, ran 80 metres to score one of his trademark tries, though he left it until the second minute of injury time.

The third element in this mini-saga is that even for one as athletic as Offiah, he will not have to do it again.

"I'm so tired," said the winger who finished the 1995-96 season as Rugby League's highest scorer for the sixth time. "There was no time to prepare with Bedford for this game. Playing two matches in under 24 hours is impossible. I will not play League again until May, by when the union season has finished."

Offiah was only a peripheral figure until his late strike. His teammates had done the real graft during a torrid first period, when there were more punches thrown than in one of Frank Warren's most animated promotions.

Rotherham's problem was in coming to terms with Steve McCurrie who had come on for the injured Richard Stone at scrum half. Two tries from the former Widnes Rugby League hooker and some impeccable goalkicking from Mike Rayer effectively wrecked Rotherham's hopes of reaching the play- offs.

Rotherham: Try Hill; Penalties Binns, Ashworth. Bedford: Tries McCurrie 2, Offiah, Whetstone; Conversions Rayer 3; Penalties Rayer 2.

Rotherham: S Moffatt; N Miller, J Harper, R Ashworth, N Hill; S Binns, G Easterby; S Bunting, R Wareham, S Coy (S Wilson, 36), G Webster, D Cook, R Bramley (R Selkirk, 78), C West, J Dudley (capt).

Bedford: M Rayer; M Oliver, B Whetstone, P Allen (H Pflugler, 68), M Cook (M Offiah, 28); P Turner (capt), R Stone (S McCurrie, 38); C Boyd, N McCarthy (P Simmonds, 51), J Probyn, S Platford (R Winters, 29), N Hadley, S Murray, J Parramore, R Straeuli.

Referee: C Rees (Twickenham).