Saturday, March 2

Tribute Cornwall and Devon League

Penryn 10

Bude 10

JOSH Chambers’ injury-time try prevented Bude from a famous victory as leaders Penryn escaped with a 10-10 draw in the top-of-the-table clash at the Memorial Ground.

Bude went into the game four points behind the leaders and knew that a bonus-point win, coupled with making sure Penryn didn’t score four tries or finish within seven points, would put them firmly in the driving seat ahead of their final five fixtures.

The visitors were able to select from a near full-strength side, although fly-half Steve Yates was injured and replaced by his brother Andy for just his second appearance of the season, while winger Tim Green was unavailable and replaced by the fit again Kyle Speare, who started at outside-centre with Will Pharo reverting to the wing and skipper Olly Denford shifting to his favoured full-back position.

However Bude had plenty of forward options available and player/coach Angus Hodges made a surprising tactical decision, benching openside-flanker Finley Fry and choosing to beef up his pack with the inclusion of Adam Black.

Black lined up at loosehead-prop with Matt Williams taking over from Joel Troke in the second-row and Troke starting at Fry’s usual openside-flanker position.

Bude were backed by an impressive away following of well over 50 for the three-hour round trip and needed all the help they could get in the first-half as Penryn got first chance to exploit a swirling wind in their favour.

However Bude defended magnificently despite incessant home pressure and conceded just a solitary score in the opening 40 minutes on the half-hour mark.

After plenty of pressure through the forwards, the ball was shifted out through the backs for left-winger Chambers to run in after an overlap was created.

Considering the wind was against them, Bude would have delighted to go in at just 5-0 down, although better accuracy could, and perhaps should have, led to a crucial try.

Close to half-time they had a penalty which was kicked to the corner deep in the Penryn 22.

However, the lineout was adjudged to have not been straight, and that was that.

With the wind now in Bude’s favour they knew they had to make hay and they did just that.

Just like Penryn did in the first-half, Bude spent long spells up to the hour mark in the home 22, but the Borough refused to buckle.

Bude are made of stern stuff and they drew level shortly after as Black was driven over following a driving maul from a lineout. To make matters worse for Penryn, skipper and influential number eight Grant Randlesome was sent to the sin-bin.

With just over 15 minutes remaining, both sides started to open up in search of the winner and Bude thought they had done it thanks to some excellent team-work from brothers Angus and Rory Hodges.

As Penryn piled forward, Angus Hodges made a fantastic hit on one of the Penryn backs as he tried to pass out of a tackle, and the ball fell loose.

Winger Rory Hodges picked up the ball and ran down the right-wing from all but 50 metres to score and spark delirious scenes in the Bude end.

Surprisingly, the home side failed to put the visitors under any sustained pressure until the last couple minutes when an error proved costly.

With Angus Hodges and number eight Joe Wilson off with injuries following a bruising encounter, Black was forced to go there for a scrum. But Bude turned them over and looked set to run the clock down. However, Black thought time was up and booted the ball out of play, but there was still time left.

Penryn won the ball and a couple of good runs got them deep into the 22. Looking to slow the ball down, scrum-half Olly Mounce was yellow-carded for snatching the ball out of a player’s hands.

After another quick penalty, Chambers, who was now playing at scrum-half, eventually sneaked his way over from a metre out.

Full-back Tomas Townsend agonisingly missed the conversion meaning the contest finished all square and left Bude relying on Penryn to slip-up to win the league.

Despite the late setback, Hodges was delighted with his players’ efforts.

“It was the biggest game of the season to battle it out for top spot. We had a really good build-up — even the warm-up went well and the boys were really hungry for it, especially after beating them at home.

“We knew we really had to bring our A game to to be able to match them. The game as a whole was really physical, which is what you would expect when the top two meet.

“It was just a big clash of heads up front and it was a game of two halves due to the wind, but it was just like a big arm wrestle!

“In the first-half when they had the wind we didn’t have a lot of possession or territory because we had a lot of defending to do, which to be fair, we were well up for. To be only 5-0 down at half-time when they had the wind, meant we were pretty happy as we knew that we had the advantage in the second-half and we had to dig deep and come away with the points. We had most of the territory and possession for the half but unfortunately we couldn’t see it out.

“Realistically, how we’re looking at it is to beat them at home and draw with them away is a good result overall. It feels a bit gutting as we came so close, but at the end of the day we played some really awesome rugby and did ourselves proud.”

Hodges admits that he’s expecting Penryn to win the title although their draw and Honiton’s win at Pirates Amateurs, means Honiton are just two points behind the leaders.

He said: “I expect so, they’ve been pretty consistent this year and there’s no real reason to doubt they’ll win their remaining games.

“But we’ll finish off the season, pick up as many points as we can and start to think about who we want to give more game time to ahead of next year.”

Struggling Pirates Amateurs are the visitors on Saturday, and Hodges expects a maximum haul.

He said: “We’ve got to come away with five points, especially playing at home. I’m really looking forward to seeing how we perform over the last five games, especially after Saturday.”

Kick-off at Bencoolen Meadow is at 2.30pm.

Bude —

Denford (captain), R Hodges, Speare, Watton, Pharo, A Yates, Mounce; Black, Bolt, Allin, Kingdon, Williams, A Hodges, Troke, Wilson

Replacements: Jeffery, F Fry, Horwell

Tries: Black, R Hodges

Convs: N/A

Pens: N/A

Bude’s man-of-the-match: Joel Troke