Bude narrowly went down from the Western Counties League last year and have had a busy summer with Hodges taking over from Adam Black as head coach, while Ed Nancekivell has taken on the role of backs coach.
After an encouraging pre-season, which saw them beat the likes of St?Austell, the Bencoolen Meadow outfit made the trip to East Devon, confident of picking up some points.
However, the home side proved far too good, scoring six tries, three of which were converted.
Bude did manage a try from centre Edward Hilliam-Cooke but the Seasiders will have to wait until this Saturday to try and get their first win of the season when newly-promoted Hayle are the visitors to Bencoolen Meadow.
First-team manager Mark Kendrick admitted that although they didn’t play at their best, Withycombe looked dangerous.
Kendrick said:?“It was a disappointing day for us. We didn’t really play very well at all, but saying that they looked very strong, organised and dangerous.
“We’re doing an extra training session this week to make sure that we’re ready for Saturday when we play Hayle. They were promoted last season and started the season with a win (a 36-25 victory over Wessex) so we know it’s going to be a tough game. But we’ll be ready and hopefully we can put in a good performance and get the win.”
Looking further ahead, Kendrick is hoping for a period of stability for the club.
Kendrick said:?“We’re a bit of a yo-yo side at the moment between Western Counties rugby and the Cornwall and Devon League. When we last got relegated three years ago we were mid-table and that’s where we want to be this year.
“We want to make sure we’re in the top-half and win more than we lose.
“However, there’s a new approach to training and we’ve tried to freshen things up. The team is a lot younger this year but we just want to enjoy our rugby and see what happens.”
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