BUDE fell to a third successive away defeat in the Cornwall and Devon League to high-flying Penryn in atrocious conditions at the Memorial Ground.

Angus Hodges’ men had fallen to comfortable defeats on their previous trips to Withycombe and Honiton, but put in a solid defensive performance, although ultimately it was to no avail.

Penryn’s points came through two penalties from Mitch Vague while they scored their solitary try through Ben Birkett with just ten minutes left on the clock.

Hodges was enthused by their vast improvement from previous away trips and was already looking ahead to the visit of Pirates Amateurs to Bencoolen Meadow this Saturday (3pm).

Hodges said:?“We had to do a lot of defending but to concede only one try against a team at the top end of the table was encouraging, especially when you consider the conditions.

“Our first up tackling was very good and it’s about putting in building blocks. On another day against a different team, we could have quite easily won it.”

While running rugby was off the cards in the appalling conditions, Hodges admits that they let themselves down with ball in hand.

Hodges said: “We knew that it wasn’t going to be an expansive game but our backs weren’t deep enough and we put alot of pressure on ourselves when we got the ball. There were a few unnecessary knock-ons and silly mistakes when we just needed to keep the ball.

“This week in training we’ll be working on our ball retention, our rucking from 1-15 and making sure we get support runners with the ball.

“Hopefully this weekend we can get the ball in-hand and put in a good performance.”