BUDE player/coach, Angus Hodges, has warned his players they need to be ‘back in the swing of things’ ahead of Liskeard-Looe’s visit to Bencoolen Meadow on Saturday.

Third-placed Bude ended up without a game last weekend after bottom side Withycombe conceded, meaning that by the time they kick-off on Saturday they would have gone 21 days without playing.

Heavy rain on Friday and Saturday meant it was unclear whether the game would have gone ahead as normal, but explaining Withycombe’s decision, Hodges said: “Withycombe are struggling with players commitments as we received a message earlier on in the week saying they couldn’t put a team out for Saturday.

“As they are doubtful their position will get any better, instead of rearranging the game for a later date, they decided to concede the league game and offered a friendly instead. But due to the condition of our pitch, we refused the friendly.”

Liskeard-Looe will travel to North Cornwall having enjoyed a solid season since winning promotion last term, winning nine and losing nine of their 19 fixtures to sit seventh in the table with seven games to go.

On Saturday they pushed leaders Honiton hard before slipping to a 12-10 defeat and Hodges knows his promotion-chasers need to be on their game and that the lay-off could affect them.

He said: “We could see some lethargic rugby. We did train twice last week which will help but we could do with a good week’s training this week.

“We’ll be doing lots of handling work, passing to hand and lots of attacking plays at a high intensity as well as some defensive contact to make sure the boys are fired up for it."

He added: “They had a good result against Honiton last week, so we’ve got to deal with them. They’re quite upfront and not easy to push around which is another reason why we need to make sure we’re back in the swing of things by Saturday!”