BUDE Rugby Club’s first team player/coach, Angus Hodges, ‘believes that the club have come a long way’ in 2017.

The North Cornwall side have endured a mixed year. They were relegated after just one season in Tribute Western Counties (West) but have enjoyed a solid campaign back in the Tribute Devon and Cornwall League, sitting fifth in the table going into the Christmas break.

Hodges only joined the club earlier in the year after moving to the area and was asked to take on the top coaching job at the age of just 23.

Despite the added responsibility, Bude have continued to improve, and most importantly, started to turn around their wretched away form of recent times.

Their 52-26 win at Hayle in their last game before Christmas made it three consecutive victories on the road.

That was a far cry from their away form to start with, as they won just one of their first five away league games — a 19-6 victory at Plymouth Argaum.

Bencoolen Meadow, as is always the case, continues to be a fortress. They’ve lost just once in their six home games and have seven more to play at there, compared to just five away.

Looking back at the season so far, Hodges said: “There’s a bit of space between us and fourth and sixth and we’re sort of where we want to be. We’re not looking for promotion this season as we’ve had and still have, too much to work on.

“However we’ve come a long way this season and there have been a few players who have really come on and the more experienced ones are still improving, which is great.

“The away win at Hayle recently, showed the progression we’ve made. To get a win of that magnitude with 14 men was brilliant and we’ve started to turn our away form around with three wins in a row away from home.

“It’s been a big problem at the club for a long while now so to start getting that sorted has been great.

“At the moment we’re now just looking forward to building up our consistency. We need to play well for the whole 80 minutes week in, week out instead of turning up for certain parts of the match.

“There are a couple of bits we’re going to continue to look at. We need to learn to become a bit more adaptable throughout the game to the opposition, so that if they change things we can as well. We want to be flexible and be able to change things and still be comfortable.

“A lot of our away problems were probably psychological so we’re going to continue to working on that and try to beat some of the better sides away from home.

“We’ve also given the players a lot of new information and we’ve changed our style a fair bit so we know it’s going to take time. We just need to learn when to try all that, but still be smart and make sure that we fight all the way through.

“However the season so far has, on the whole, been good, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season and continuing to improve.”

Bude are back in action on Saturday, January 6 when they entertain Honiton (2.30pm).