Saturday, September 1

Cornwall?and Devon?League

Bude 16

ED HILLIAM-Cooke kicked a penalty with the last play of the game as Bude came from behind to beat Tavistock 16-14 their league opener on Saturday at Sandy Park.

The North Cornwall side were missing a host of players due to a wedding and other reasons, but showed the fighting qualities needed if they are to launch a promotion bid this term.

Among the starting 15 were the returning Dan Frost at scrum-half, Steve Yates at full-back and debutant lock second-row Luke Dunkin although the rest of the team had a familiar look to it.

The home side dominated possession in the first-half and went 6-0 up inside 20 minutes through two George Hillson penalties.

But Bude’s forward power is well known and that allowed them to get back in the game.

On the half-hour mark, after sustained pressure, player/coach Angus Hodges, who was standing at ten from a ruck, received a pass from Frost before passing the ball to Hilliam-Cooke at inside-centre, who cut an excellent line inside from seven metres out to go over. He then converted the kick in the absence of new skipper Olly Denford to put Bude 7-6 in front.

Tavistock were the better side and ensured they went into the break in front.

After winning a quick turnover on halfway with Bude committed to attack, fly-half Ed Nettleship put an excellent box-kick into the right-hand corner.

Unfortunately for Bude, winger Rory Hodges tried to scramble from one side of the pitch to the other but came up short as home full-back Ben Milligan gathered the ball to score and give them an 11-7 half-time advantage.

Lock Will Kingdon was shown a yellow card for not attempting to wrap in the tackle and from the resulting penalty, Tavistock extended their lead to 14-7 after 50 minutes.

Playing with 14 men for ten minutes seemed to liven up Bude as they started to dominate possession.

Hilliam-Cooke slotted over a couple of penalties but were still losing by a point with seconds to go.

However, after the referee adjudged Bude not to have touched down from a driving maul, they kept the pressure on from the five-metre scrum and were eventually awarded a penalty to win the game.

Hilliam-Cooke, who broke his hand early on in the game and played the rest of the contest, chose to kick it from 20 metres and slotted it over to spark wild scenes in the away camp.

Reflecting on the game, player/coach, Angus Hodges, said: “I knew it’d be a dogfight. We were calling on players who’ve only had a couple of sessions, so we couldn’t rely on our structures and it certainly showed.

“But at the end of the day, we have won our first game away from home. Although it wasn’t in a great fashion we did what we needed to do so I couldn’t really expect much more.

“We have our first home game this week, and with players returning, it should be a lot more positive.”

Newly-promoted Topsham are the visitors to Bencoolen Meadow on Saturday (3pm).

Bude —

Yates, R Hodges, A?Hodges, Hilliam-Cooke, Horwell, Watton, Frost; Bolt, Mead, Allin, Kingdon, Dunkin, Innes, F Fry, Wilson

Replacements: Cholwill, Saxton, Bromwich

Tries: Hilliam-Cooke

Convs: Hilliam-Cooke

Pens: Hilliam-Cooke 3

Man-of-the-match: Rory Mead (Bude)