Saturday, November 30

Tribute Cornwall and Devon League

South Molton 9

Bude 20

TRIES in each half gave Bude their first away win of the season in a rearranged fixture at struggling South Molton.

Despite falling behind to an early Ben Smart penalty, the visitors led 10-3 at the break thanks to scores from Rory Hodges and Olly Mounce.

Although two further penalties from Smart brought the North Devon side to within a point, an Olly Denford penalty boosted by Ed Hilliam-Cooke’s late score meant Angus Hodges’ side moved up to sixth with a game in-hand.

Hodges was able to name a near full-strength team for the clash at Unicorn Park, the scene of their heaviest defeat of last season on the penultimate weekend.

South Molton enjoyed an excellent debut campaign at Step Eight but have struggled this term, winning just twice.

However they started brightly and took an early lead through Smart’s penalty on seven minutes.

Bude found it tough to get any possession but scored from their first attack on the quarter-hour. Superb offloading down the right-wing involving backs Callum Bettington, Rory Hodges, Ed Hilliam-Cooke and Charlie Watton ended with Hodges diving over in the corner.

The pattern for the half was set with the hosts keeping the ball for long spells without making any inroads.

Bude’s driving maul is a regular source of tries for them and it was again on 33 minutes. A penalty was kicked to the corner some ten metres out, and once the lineout was claimed, Mounce latched on to it to dive over and take the score to 10-3.

South Molton finally threatened a score before the break as they had a lineout of their own, close to the line.

But once again the Cornishmen stood strong to take a seven-point lead into the interval.

The second-half continued in a similar fashion to start with, and Bude’s penalty count began to rise.

Smart landed an excellent penalty from 40 metres on 46 minutes before landing a much simpler one shortly after to ensure they went into the final half an hour just a point behind.

Bude knew that they needed to start exerting some pressure and finally did so.

They extended their lead on 64 minutes through Denford’s penalty from in front of the posts.

The visiting scrum was proving particularly effective and the final 15 minutes were mainly spent in the home 22, with plenty of scrums taking place.

Bude finally grabbed a third try with two minutes to go as Hilliam-Cooke picked the ball up from a ruck and crashed his way over.

Denford notched the conversion and that was how it stayed until the final whistle as Bude claimed their first victory on the road.

Hodges was delighted with the defensive side of the game.

He said: “After last year’s very disappointing loss up there it was something we really wanted to put right. All the boys got on board with that and it showed in the game, which was particularly pleasing after an extended amount of time hardly playing.

“It was definitely in the back of my mind as to what sort of performance we’d put in.

“Our attack was perhaps a bit scrappy at times which is down to us not having the game time in recent weeks, but on the flip side to that, our defence was outstanding. The only yards they really made which was when we gave away a few too many penalties.

“But it was our defence which won it for us. We drained them and in the end they ran out of options in attack. It was great to see the passion and the flair back in the players.”

Hodges was particularly pleased with the performance of his back-row and backs.

He said: “Tully was man-of-the-match. He carried really well, tackled a lot all over the park. He put in a big 80 minute shift while Joe Wilson also had another game.

“Defensively our backs were really strong, and the line up between Charlie Watton, Ed Hilliam-Cooke and Callum Bettington was really good.”

Fifth-placed Torquay Athletic, who were the only time to beat them twice in 2018/19, are the visitors to Bencoolen Meadow this Saturday.

Hodges said: “They were the team to upset us the most, and the only team last year to beat us twice.

“If we defend like we did on Saturday then I’ll be more than happy. But we need to make sure we create more opportunities for ourselves by linking up more phases and having better structure in attack.

“If we can outscrummage them it’ll get under their skin a bit and upset them. If we defend like we did on Saturday, hopefully they won’t much offer much threat. But it’s no good if we can’t turn that defence into a good attack and get some points.”

Bude —

Denford, R Hodges, Bettington, Hilliam-Cooke, Butler, Watton, Mounce; Keat, Bolt, Allin, Kingdon, Williams, Innes, F Fry, Wilson.

Replacements: Sobey, Statton, Horwell.

Tries: R Hodges, Mounce, Hilliam-Cooke.

Convs: Denford.

Pens: Denford.

Bude’s man-of-the-match: Tully Innes.