Cornwall and Devon

BUDE RFC 38

NORTH TAWTON 15

NOBODY in this league said it was going to be easy this year for newly promoted North Tawton and another big loss — this time in North Cornwall — proves the point.

However, suffering two heavy defeats in their last two games does not mean the team has gone bad overnight — the club is having a cruel run of injuries to key players and North Tawton were playing against top of the table sides in Truro and Bude.

Bude ran out comfortable winners but were made to look good by a North Tawton side who seemed to fall into the trap set by the home team of the slower power play type of rugby. The visitors struggled throughout the game to get the ball out to the backs and use their speed on the wings.

The match started well enough for North Tawton with a penalty from Will Lethbridge and a try from Matt Baker to give them both hope and an eight-point lead. This was the wake up call the home side required and the game soon settled into the pattern of the hosts winning scrums in North Tawton’s ten yard area and pushing over for the try. This led to Bude going in at half-time 21-8.

The second half started with more of the same with Bude using their forward size and strength to great advantage and adding two more tries to take the score to 33-8.

The game was now well out of the reach of the visitors. At one stage Bude were down to 12 men with three yellow cards but because of their tackling North Tawton still laboured to make any headway.

A Matt Baker try for North Tawton reduced the score to 33-15 to Bude but the hosts rubbed salt into the visitors’ wounds as their 13 men had the final say with the last try of the match for a final score of 38-13.