Western Counties Division (West)

Bude 15

BUDE’s quest to avoid relegation from the Western Counties West Division was given a welcome boost as they ground out a crucial 15-10 victory over rock bottom Wellington at Bencoolen Meadow.

On a sticky wet pitch, Bude’s powerful pack took an immediate stranglehold on the game, driving the Wellington forwards back with a series of dominant scrums and well-co-ordinated rolling mauls.

Their efforts were rewarded when after seven minutes they were awarded a penalty under the Wellington posts. Rather than take the easy three points on offer they elected to kick to the corner. The following series of forward mauls were initially repelled by stalwart Wellington defence, but the Bude pressure was incessant and Wellington infringed again by illegally pulling down yet another rolling maul.

Again the easy three points were rejected, but this time Bude opted for a scrum from which they drove the Wellington scrum over there line through number eight James Comber who dived over the line having adroitly controlled the ball at the back of the move. Dan Pearce kicked the conversion.

Bude continued to dominate the forward areas, but the lack of fluency in the three quarters made it obvious that if a try was to come it would be through the pack, and so it proved.

Wellington pulled down another Bude rolling maul, losing a man to a yellow card in the process. From the resulting scrum they were once again shunted back over the line allowing scrum-half Ollie Mounce an easy score. Pearce’s conversion was unsuccessful but Bude had a comfortable 12-0 lead.

The game then deteriorated into a succession of error strewn movements and needless penalties; the highlight of this period of play for Bude was a scintillating break by Pearce that only led to another penalty for an offence in the tackle area and for Wellington a converted penalty by Tom Hawkins after Bude strayed offside.

Wellington, by virtue of giving away fewer penalties, were able to mount a series of attacks and when half-time arrived they were looking the more threatening side.

The second half saw a plethora of penalties, which meant that neither side was able to mount any cohesive attacks or maintain a period of sustained pressure.

However, Wellington did manage to miss a penalty from under the posts and Bude lost centre Edward Hilliam-Cooke to a yellow card.

The only try of the second half was scored by the Somerset-based side who gratefully accepted an early Christmas present when a calamitous attempted back row to scrum half move floundered, leaving the Wellington scrum-half, Liam Symons, a stroll in for a try under the posts. Tom Hawkins kicked the conversion and Bude’s comfortable lead had been reduced to two points.

The game continued to lurch from penalty to penalty, mistake to mistake which was not the entertainment that the healthy crowd had hoped for but did add an air of frenetic excitement to proceedings as Bude reverted to their one–dimensional forward oriented game and wore down the opposition defence.

This forward dominance, Mark Williams, Liam Cook and Jason Bolt to the fore, eventually saw Bude camped on the Wellington line where they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts.

With less than two minutes remaining Bude again turned down the kick and took the scrum option. From the set-piece they pushed Wellington remorselessly backwards, and when the Wellington pack disintegrated, Dan Pearce gratefully accepted the penalty to kick Bude to a tense 15-10 victory which could go along way to securing the Western Counties survival bid come April.

Bude:

Tries: Comber, Mounce

Conv: Pearce

Pen: Pearce

Wellington:

Try: Symons

Conv: Hawkins

Pen: Hawkins