Saturday, February 24

Tribute Cornwall and Devon League

Lanner 16

Bude 20

VETERAN forward Dave Gregory scored with the last play of the game to give Bude a 20-16 victory at Lanner in the Cornwall and Devon League.

The visitors trailed 8-7 at half-time as Mike Laity’s try coupled with a Matt Cann penalty cancelled out skipper Joe Wilson’s try for Bude.

Despite scrum-half Olly Mounce’s sin-binning on the hour, Bude led 15-13 with a couple minutes to go after a second-half try and penalty from Olly Denford to cancel out number eight Dave Hewitt’s score.

However a penalty from Cann with just a couple of minutes to spare looked to have given the Lanner victory.

But with seconds to go, Bude were awarded a penalty which was kicked to the corner. From there, they won the lineout and in the end it was Gregory who was driven over to clinch the points.

Assistant coach, Ed Nancekivell, who was standing in for the honeymooning Angus Hodges, believed that they deserved it.

He said: “It was a fairly dramatic game but we were the better side throughout. Lanner put up some dogged defence and we couldn’t keep possession at times and it nearly cost us.

“Thankfully we got a penalty right at the end, which we kicked to the corner and we managed to drive ourselves over. It was a dramatic ending but I think we were better throughout.

“The first 20 minutes we were pretty dominant as we moved the ball well and started to make some inroads.

“However we then started to concede a number of penalties and it changed the momentum and they went into half-time with an 8-7 lead.

“Throughout the second-half the scores kept interchanging and anyone could have won it but we got there in the end.

“However we gave away too many chances from penalties and we shouldn’t have got ourselves into that situation. But in the end we were a bit better upfront and that’s the difference.

“The win has now cemented us in the top five and we’ve built a nice gap between us and Withycombe in sixth so we’re pretty happy with where we’re at at the moment.”

Saturday sees the visit of third-placed Saltash to Bencoolen Meadow and Nancekivell knows that it’ll be a good test.

He said: “Saltash are a really talented side and if they play like they did down there it’s going to be a very difficult game.

“Their half backs are excellent and they also have a number of other very good players and are deservedly in the top three.

“But we’ll go into the game in confident mood, so hopefully we can pick up a good result.”

Bude —

Rakhshani, R Hodges, Denford, Roberts, Horwell, Watton, Mounce; Allin, Cook, Bolt, Kingdon, Williams, F Fry, T Fry, Wilson

Replacements — Mead, Gilroy, Gregory

Tries: Wilson, Denford, Gregory

Convs: Denford

Pens: Denford