Saturday, November 16

Tribute Cornwall and Devon League

Bude 10

OLLY Denford’s ten-point haul gave Bude a 10-3 victory over a spirited Tavistock at Bencoolen Meadow on Saturday.

Bude hadn’t played for three weeks following a bye and a postponement at South Molton, meaning they hadn’t been given the chance to build on their 22-6 victory over high-flying Plymstock Albion Oaks.

Player/coach Angus Hodges made four changes from their last outing with two in the forwards and two in the backs.

Up front, prop Jake Keat was recalled in place of the unavailable Joel Troke, which meant Matt Williams moved into the second-row, while Tully Innes started at flanker in place of Tremaine Fry, who has gone travelling.

In the backs, fly-half Steve Yates made his first appearance since September in place of Ed Hilliam-Cooke, while winger Tim Green lined up on the left-wing for Ryan Butler.

Bottom side Tavistock arrived in North Cornwall without a win to their name but had picked up five losing bonus points, and had only lost 18-10 to leaders Truro a week earlier.

They started the better and camped themselves on the home line for the first five minutes. However they couldn’t capitalise and were eventually penalised.

Bude’s tactics before the break were to kick and grow into the contest as well as force mistakes by keeping Tavistock in their own half.

Tavistock did miss a 45-metre penalty which faded just wide, and Bude struck the only points of a keenly-contested, yet attritional half with the last kick of the half as skipper Denford landed a penalty from 25 metres.

Bude decided to try and keep possession a bit more after the interval and started to put a few more phases together, which allowed them to dominate possession.

The game’s only try came on 65 minutes through an excellent bit of thinking.

Picking the ball up some 40 metres out, Yates sent over a ten-metre cross-field kick to the left-wing where Denford collected, spun out of the tackle and then ran the rest of the way to the line.

He then slotted a superb conversion.

Tavistock had earlier had a sin-bin and once they were back to their full compliment started to get a grip on the game once more.

The last five minutes saw them barge away without much success, but they were given the chance to play the final stages against 14 men as Charlie Watton was yellow-carded for repeated offences at the breakdown.

Rob Pratt did grab a late penalty to ensure Tavistock picked up a bonus point for finishing within seven, but it was Bude’s day.

They are now up to seventh with a game in-hand on fourth-placed Pirates Amateurs.

Hodges admitted that it was a strange afternoon.

He said: “It was a weird one really. With the way they played it’s surprising that they’re at the bottom of the table. They were probably a bit unlucky to come away with what they got.

“But from our point of view, although it was nothing fancy, the boys were quite pleased with their 80 minutes work.

“It was a conscious effort to play the territory game and play in their half and in the right areas. We kicked to the corners a lot and tried to build pressure without possession.

“Overall it wasn’t a bad first-half but we were probably trying to play a bit more tactically than passionately. We definitely could have scored a couple of tries if we were a bit more switched on.

“In the second-half we kicked a bit less and kept the ball in-hand. But they played well and we had to work really hard for every yard. After having a few weeks off we weren’t really willing to put them through the phases, but a win is a win.

“The best element of our game was our defence. We shut down most of their threats and got the points.”

Hodges was pleased with a couple of performers.

He said: “Callum Bettington played really well again and was named man-of-the-match, while Steve Yates was also good having not played for a few weeks. He gave us some really good control.

“There were moments for everyone, but because of the time we’ve had off, stringing it all together was a problem for us.”

Bude go to ninth-placed Topsham this Saturday and Hodges wants to see a bit more with ball in-hand in Exeter.

He said: “Looking ahead to this weekend we need to get a bit more fluidity between the plays we’re trying to use and the players.

“It’s a very open league at the moment with everyone beating everyone, which makes it hard to judge at times. All we can do is focus on ourselves. We still have a lot to work on.

“The biggest thing at the front of our minds is getting over our away stigma. We haven’t won away yet and it’s something which we struggled with a couple of years ago, but last year I thought we’d broken out of it.

“We need to pinpoint the reasons why we’re not getting results away from home and put it right.”

When the sides met last year, Bude won 38-19 at home before earning a late 29-20 victory in the return leg.

Hodges said: “It was really close at theirs and we needed a couple of late tries to do so. It’s a difficult place to go and they get a good home advantage, so the issue of our away form will certainly be put to the test.”

Bude —

Denford, R Hodges, Bettington, Watton, Green, S Yates, Mounce; Keat, Bolt, Allin, Kingdon, Williams, Innes, F Fry, Wilson.

Replacements: Sobey, Hockridge, Goodenough.

Tries: Denford.

Convs: Denford.

Pens: Denford.

Bude’s man-of-the-match: Callum Bettington.