BUDE player/coach Angus Hodges expects a tough test when promoted Veor are the visitors to Bencoolen Meadow in Saturday’s Cornwall/Devon League opener on Saturday (3pm).

Bude enjoyed an excellent 2018/19 season, picking up 104 points from their 26 games with 21 wins, one draw and four defeats to finish third behind promoted Penryn and Honiton.

Despite that, the North Cornwall side will be expected to be among the front-runners and have bolstered their squad with the acquisitions of forwards Jake Keat and Daniel Statton as well as Spanish centre Pas Medina and New Zealander Callum Bettington who made a couple of appearances towards the end of last season.

Hodges admits that they’re not fully ready, despite scoring plenty of tries at Bodmin in their pre-season fixture on Saturday.

“A lot of the changes we’re trying to make aren’t really results driven, but more as a club entity in bringing everyone together and creating a pathway between the first and second team.

"Although we’ve not perhaps had the attendance at training we’d like, we could struggle a bit in the first month just due to how prepared we may or not be.

“But I think in the slightly bigger picture, for the guys and girls who have been around, it’s been a good start to the season, but we have a lot of work to do before Saturday.

“We’re looking to increase the structure of our game a bit. Before we’d rely on an individual player to create something. While it’s good but it’s hard to always get that right. At the moment, because we’ve had mismatched training, our player cohesion isn’t quite where we’d like it, but that can’t be helped.

“We’ll be doing a lot of ball handling this week. Saturday showed a few mishaps and only having one pre-season game isn’t ideal. You could tell it was our first game, but we’ll drill it hard this week and make sure we get that pass-rate up.”

Hodges was fairly pleased with how it went despite the gulf in class.

He said: “We won by a lot without conceding any points. Our defence was reasonably strong and we turned up with 20, but a few weren’t from us. It made our structure a bit looser as they hadn’t played together before. But our focus levels were quite high and the fact we didn’t leak points was quite pleasing. Our execution could have been higher but we haven’t played for ages.

“It’s a shame we don’t have another pre-season game but we’ll focus on this weekend and try to get the win.”

Three of his new signings are likely to be involved on Saturday.

Hodges said: “Pas is probably going to be in the centre to begin with, he’s a strong ball carrier and with Kieran Sharp no longer with us having moved away to Milton Keynes, hopefully Pas can fill his boots at 13.

“Callum is also back with us. He won’t be playing the first month but he’s a bit of an asset in the backs.

“In the forwards, Jake Keat will hopefully play a fair bit for us in the front row and there’s another one I’m working on, but we’ll see what happens with that. Dan Statton is also coming back from Barnstaple, and is a back-row.”

Sharp is the only full-time departure at present, although veteran ex-Cornish All Blacks hooker Jason Bolt is looking to play less.

Hodges said: “Apart from Kieran moving away, we haven’t lost anybody although Jason Bolt and Steve Yates are stepping back a bit.

"I know that Jason wants to play less. He did play at the weekend, but hopefully he’ll play as and when. It’s the same situation with Steve, but I’m sure he’ll play a few games.”

As ever, the 14-team Cornwall/Devon League will see Bude travel all over both counties, going to the likes of Torquay Athletic and Penzance to face Pirates Amateurs, and Hodges believes that the standard is likely to increase once more.

He said: “It’ll be difficult and looks a much harder league than last year. I think the teams who have come up will be here to stay and it looks as if there’ll be a massive battle at the bottom. I don’t think there’ll be any easy games, especially away. The teams who have come down (Paignton and Truro) normally want to go straight up, so it’ll be a difficult season for everyone.

"But it should be very competitive which will hopefully make for some good and exciting rugby.”

Despite finishing just six points shy of promotion, Hodges isn’t making any bold predictions.

“An ideal spot for us would be in the top five, which should be manageable. How we kick off with two home games against promoted sides could either give us a good springboard or put us behind and have us chasing the game.

“But we’d like to think we’ll win most, if not all of our home games, as we’ve got a very good home record, and then we’ll see how we go from there.”

Hodges expects a stern challenge from Veor (Camborne) who were crowned Cornwall One champions last term and recently won at Western Counties (West) outfit Falmouth in pre-season.

He said: “I know that they have signed a few players, they’ll take the season very seriously. I’m assuming with the signings, they’ve had a decent build-up to this game and will be pretty fiery, so we’re going to have to play some decent rugby to match them. It’ll be a really good first game to win and set us up for the rest of the season.”

Bude’s first team fixtures for the 2019/20 season. Please note all fixtures are subject to change.

September

7th: Veor (H)

14th: Exeter Athletic (H)

21st: Lanner (A)

28th: Liskeard-Looe (H)

October

5th: North Tawton (A)

12th: Paignton (H)

19th: Pirates Amateurs (A)

26th: Plymstock Albion Oaks (H)

November

2nd: Pirates Amateurs (A)

9th: South Molton (A)

16th: Tavistock (H)

23rd: Topsham (A)

30th: Cornwall Cup second-round

December

7th: Torquay Athletic (H)

14th: Truro (A)

21st: Exeter Athletic (A)

26th: Presidents XV (F)

28th: No Game

January

4th: Lanner (H)

11th: Liskeard-Looe (A)

18th: North Tawton (H)

25th: No Game

February

1st: Paignton (A)

8th: Pirates Amateurs (H)

15th: Plymstock Albion Oaks (A)

22nd: Cornwall Cup semi-final

29th: South Molton (H)

March

7th: Tavistock (A)

14th: Veor (A)

21st: Topsham (H)

28th: Torquay Athletic (A)

April

4th: Truro (H)

13th: Cornwall Cup final