Saturday, September 15

Cornwall?and Devon?League

Torquay Athletic 43

Bude 13

AFTER back-to-back wins to start the season, Bude were brought back down to earth on Saturday as they lost 43-13 at promotion favourites Torquay Athletic.

The Cornishmen made the long trip in buoyant mood but went home firmly beaten.

Bude made three changes from their 38-19 victory over Topsham a week previously.

Chris Allin returned to the fold for the working Jason Bolt while fellow prop Simon Jeffery made his first appearance of the season in place of Matt Williams who dropped to the bench.

Inspirational number eight Joe Wilson was also out meaning player/coach Angus Hodges took his place at the base of the scrum with Tremaine Fry coming at openside-flanker. His brother Finley swapped sides to play at six.

Played on a small but wide pitch, Bude knew that conditions allowed for an expansive game and they conceded inside two minutes as after Torquay won the ball almost straight from Bude receiving the kick-off, a couple of excellent offloads down the left-hand side ended with winger Aaron Graham going over in the corner.

Bude needed to get themselves back into the game quickly and they did just that.

Hodges picked the ball up from the base of a ruck some 30 metres out before dummying a pass and running over the top of the ruck to score despite the best efforts of a trio of home defenders. Skipper Olly Denford missed the conversion.

Torquay were dangerous all over the field and regained their lead when second-row Jon?Woodhead stormed over from close-range.

Bude hit back soon after with a 25-metre penalty from Denford.

However the Devon side scored twice more to make it 22-8 at the break thanks to tries from full-back Tom Drake and captain Jake Bury.

Bude knew they had to score next and they reduced the arrears to nine points ten minutes into the second-half as scrum-half Olly Mounce dotted down after an excellent driving maul from the pack.

However player/coach James Wood, who was playing at outside-centre, scored twice in the final half-an-hour alongside another effort from Bury as a tiring Bude struggled.

After the game, Hodges admitted they did not play well.

He said:?“It was a disappointing performance, especially in some areas where we’d been working on.

“There were some glimpses of good stuff but with nowhere near the continuity needed. There’s plenty of work to be done.”

Hodges is already looking forward to their home clash with Lanner at Bencoolen Meadow on Saturday (3pm).

He said:?“We had a good game against them last time and we always back ourselves at home. Personally we have a lot of wrongs to right after the Torquay game and if we correct the performance then the result should take care of itself.

“We also have another wedding which means we have some missing, but Dan Frost and Jason Bolt should hopefully be back. However, Rory Mead has now gone to uni, so we won’t be seeing him for a while.”

Bude —

Denford (captain), R Hodges, Sharp, Watton, Horwell, Yates, Mounce; Allin, Mead, Jeffery, Kingdon, Troke, F Fry, T Fry, A Hodges

Replacements: Dunkin, Williams, Innes

Tries: A Hodges, Mounce

Convs: N/A

Pens: Denford

Bude’s man-of-the-match: Rory Mead