Saturday, October 5

Tribute Cornwall and Devon League

North Tawton 9

THREE Gary Sizmur penalties proved decisive as Bude fell to their second defeat of the season in Mid-Devon.

The visitors made the trip without a host of forwards with the likes of Joel Troke, Angus Hodges, Tremaine Fry, Chris Allin and Dan Statton all unavailable.

Their absence meant that veteran Barry Sobey started at prop, Jason Bolt moved to hooker and Jake Keat made his first start for the club at prop.

The second-row pairing of Matt Williams and Will Kingdon remained from the 22-10 victory over Liskeard although the back three of the scrum was also completely changed as Luke Dunkin, Finley Fry and Joe Wilson lined up, the latter switching from hooker where he’d scored seven tries in just three appearances.

The game itself was a dull, attritional affair with the backs barely touching the ball throughout.

Sizmur kicked his first three pointer on the quarter-hour mark and that was how it stayed until close to the hour when the former Okehampton full-back slotted two more penalties in less than five minutes.

Bude dominated possession for long spells but found the home defence incredibly tough to break down.

They eventually got on the scoreboard with ten minutes to go as outside-centre Ed Hilliam-Cooke joined on to a driving maul. Skipper Olly Denford converted but despite some late pressure, North Tawton held on to move up to seventh, one place behind Bude who dropped from third as a result.

Player/coach Angus Hodges, who was having an operation to put his cheekbone back into place, admitted that his side’s away form is a concern.

He said: “It wasn’t a good result. We had the majority of territory and possession, but we couldn’t turn it into points or execute when necessary.

“They didn’t really come close to scoring a try and used their penalties to win. Our downfall was our penalty count, which was 17, and is too many.

“At the moment we’re struggling to replicate the performances we’re having at home on our travels. Hopefully we can break out of that soon. A big part of last year was our away improvement.

Hopefully having Paignton at home on Saturday will be a confidence booster and hopefully we’ll play a bit more of the rugby we want to see.”

Bude —

Denford (captain), R Hodges, Hilliam-Cooke, Butler, Bettington, Watton, Mounce; Sobey, Bolt, Keat, Kingdon, Williams, Dunkin, F Fry, Wilson.

Replacements: Innes, Thomas, Horwell.

Tries: Hilliam-Cooke.

Convs: Denford.

Pens: N/A.

Bude’s man-of-the-match: Joe Wilson.