Saturday, January 19

Tribute Cornwall and Devon League

Bude 74

Hayle 7

RORY Hodges scored a quadruple as Bude warmed up for their vital clash with Honiton on Saturday by running in 12 tries against a depleted Hayle outfit at Bencoolen Meadow.

The league leaders had the try bonus point in the bag inside 16 minutes and added a further eight scores in the next hour.

Bude welcomed back Ed Hilliam-Cooke and Adam Black to the starting 15 in place of the injured Charlie Watton and Joel Troke, who was away, and showed no mercy.

Such was Hayle’s struggle to get a team for the game, the West Cornwall outfit contemplated conceding before scrabbling together a squad of 17, and they were behind inside a minute as blindside-flanker Angus Hodges scored in the left-hand corner from ten metres.

Bude are excellent at home at the best of times and they went 12-0 up on eight minutes as full-back Olly Denford converted his own try, which came from a backs move after a five-metre scrum.

Three minutes later it was 17-0 as Matt Williams bulldozed his way over from close range before Angus Hodges grabbed his second from 15 metres out after an excellent break down the right-wing by his brother Rory.

Denford converted the fourth try for a 24-0 lead.

To be fair to Hayle they continued to battle away gamely and got on the scoreboard on 27 minutes. The visitors turned over the ball inside their own 22 and worked the ball out to winger Talan Daniels who ran 70 metres. Scrum-half Dave Richards added the extras.

There were three further scores for Bude before the break.

On 31 minutes, Black made an excellent run before kicking to the left-hand corner where Bude won possession before spreading the play across the field for right-winger Rory Hodges to score.

Within two minutes, openside-flanker Finley Fry slipped a couple of tackles to run in from 30 metres before Angus Hodges received a pass from Fry on the left-wing and ran in 50 plus metres for his hat-trick. Denford converted all three and they led 43-7.

Hayle held out for 11 second-half minutes before Bude added their eighth try as fly-half Steve Yates sent over a crossfield kick for an unmarked Rory Hodges to cross the whitewash for the second time.

It took until the 64th minute for the next score as Hilliam-Cooke punched his way through some weak tackling from 15 metres.

Hayle’s task was made even harder with ten minutes to go as loosehead-prop David Penrose was sent to the sin-bin, and Bude profited.

Within seconds, Black powered his way over from a couple of metres before Rory Hodges grabbed his treble after being played in by Hilliam-Cooke following an outstanding run.

Hodges’ excellent day was completed with five minutes to go as some nice work in the backs sent him away on the overlap from 40 metres out.

The rest of the game was seen out leaving player/coach Angus Hodges satisfied ahead of Saturday’s clash in East Devon.

He said: “On Tuesday they were looking at pulling out of the fixture, but we were adamant that we played to get in a good performance before Saturday, so credit to them for getting a full side together.

“It would have been easy for us to fall asleep in the second-half, but the fact that we kept pushing showed some hunger from the boys. Hopefully we can carry that into this week and put in a big performance against one of the top teams in the league.”

Honiton are just a point behind Bude and have won their last nine games and are unbeaten at home all season, but Hodges believes they can cause an upset against a team they comfortably beat 38-24 in September.

He said: “It’s a hard place to go but having beaten them earlier in the season, we know our defence can handle it. We’ve just got to make sure we get the right amount of preparation done before then and make sure we turn up mentally!

“We know it’s going to be a tough game but Joe Wilson will be back which is great news and we’ve had a good build-up, so we’re really looking forward to the challenge!”

Kick-off at the Alhallows Playing Field is at 2.30pm.

Bude —

Denford (captain), R Hodges, Sharp, Hilliam-Cooke, Horwell, S Yates, Mounce; Jeffery, Bolt, Allin, Kingdon, Williams, A Hodges, F Fry, Black

Replacements: Dunkin, Saxton, Gilroy

Tries: A Hodges 3, Denford, Williams, R Hodges 4, F Fry, Hilliam-Cooke, Black

Convs: Denford 7

Pens: N/A

Bude’s man-of-the-match: Rory Hodges