BUDE kept up the heat on Penryn and Honiton at the top of the table before their match had even started at Plymouth Argaum on Saturday after the home side conceded on the day.

The Bickleigh Down club thought they only had 14 players so gave Bude the win and played a friendly, although a 15th man did turn up before kick-off.

As one might expect, the Cornishmen dominated the majority of possession and scored nine tries in total — seven of which were converted by skipper Olly Denford.

Denford grabbed Bude’s first try within ten minutes as some good hands in the backs released the full-back down the left-wing to run in from 40 metres.

Shortly after, the visitors doubled their lead as winger Rory Hodges went over in the right-hand corner following another swift move.

In the remaining 25 minutes of the first-half Bude added three further tries. Near the half-hour mark, player/coach Angus Hodges, who was playing at number eight, picked the ball off the base of a scrum some 30 metres out before running down the blindside and handing off the full-back to score in the left-hand corner. This time Denford missed the extras, but they led 19-0.

The relaxed nature of the encounter allowed Bude to give youngster Will Pharo at fly-half and new signing Callum Bettington at outside-centre plenty of chance to express themselves, which they did.

Bude notched tries four and five before the break. First, flanker Tremaine Fry had the simple task of crashing over from a couple of metres following more good work by the Hodges brothers before Rory Hodges grabbed his second of the afternoon, as he ran in under the posts from 25 metres after an excellent overlap that allowed Denford to make the initial break from just past halfway. Denford converted both for a 33-0 lead at half-time.

Bude’s sixth try was an unusual one. With Argaum expecting a maul to be formed from a lineout, they refused to engage in contact, expecting a foul. However, Hodges caught the ball and as the home players put their hands up to appeal, he ran through the middle of them from ten metres to score.

Winger Aaron Gilroy was a last minute starter after Timmy Green couldn’t make it due to an accident preventing him from getting out of Bude, and the teenager grabbed his first ever try in first team rugby, and in some style too. More good work got the ball to him out on the left and he stepped inside before showing his pace to run in under the posts from 35 metres.

Angus Hodges grabbed his treble shortly after the hour from a pushover scrum before Fry got to enjoy a double of his own as more good work down the left, this time involving Gilroy and Angus Hodges, allowed Hodges to unselfishly pass the ball to Fry for the easiest of finishes, for which Denford converted.

Reflecting on the day, Angus Hodges believed it was still a worthwhile exercise.

He said: “We got down there ready to go and their manager came up to me and said that unfortunately three people dropped out on the morning so they only had 14 and that they’d like to give us the walkover.

“I was happy to do that as I didn’t want to say no in the best interests of both parties, so we agreed to play a friendly which makes our trip worth it.

“In the end they did manage to get a 15th man before the kick-off but because it was a friendly, it was always going to change the tone of the game. But with us having Will Pharo in at ten and Callum (Bettington) who is a vet and just moved over from New Zealand and looks a pretty handy player playing his first game, I wanted to give them as much ball as possible and sort of break them in to those positions. So realistically it was good for them as it took the pressure off them a bit, with it being a friendly game.

“But on the other hand, it’s difficult to focus and concentrate on the game throughout the 80 minutes when you know you’ve already won!”

Despite that, Hodges was full of praise for some of their tries.

He said: “It was by far some of our best rugby this year. No-one took it that seriously and it definitely showed. I’m quite happy with how the friendly turned out and it gave the new guys plenty of time on the pitch.”

With Penryn and Honiton both picking up five points, Bude remain four points off the top with three games remaining, which start with a home game against fourth-placed Plymstock Albion Oaks on Saturday.

Hodges said: “They’re a competitive side. I just hope that we treat this game as seriously as we did when we played them away. “They’ll come looking to upset us. When we went down there we were definitely the underdogs and obviously managed to turn them over (19-5), so they’ll be looking to do the same to us.

“We need a good week’s training this week to get this weekend out of our system, so we can hit the ground running and put together a really good performance!”

Hodges is also looking to continue to give Pharo a chance.

He said: “I still want to give Will lots of game time at ten but we’ll just have to see who turns up to training. I was happy with how everyone played on Saturday, so if everyone turns up to training, I’ll have plenty of difficult decisions to make.”

Kick-off on Saturday at Bencoolen Meadow is at 2.30pm.