Western Counties West
Bude 12
Okehampton 26
OKEHAMPTON resumed their league campaign with a traditionally tough away trip to North Cornwall. With the home side struggling near the foot of the table and desperate for points, the Okes knew they would have to 'front up' in the forwards to achieve another creditable away victory.
A fierce wind was gusting down the pitch towards the bottom right corner; Oke chose to play into the breeze first up and started very brightly.
The smaller Oke pack were driving effectively at maul time and the backs were probing and creating gaps with increasing regularity. Stoic home defence prevented the Okes taking a sizable early lead.
Bude were reliant on a hefty pack of forwards and a game plan based around their traditionally strong driving maul. However, they failed to use the wind advantage effectively and as a result spent long periods inside their own half.
Oke were sticking to their attacking philosophies by running the ball from all areas and they continued to make breaks.
Prolific scrum half Richie Friend opened the scoring for the visitors with another solo score, sniping through the home defence and crossing near the posts; his try , let up an easy conversion for fly half Carl Poynton.
Despite more near misses, the scoreboard was not troubled again before the interval as it remained 7-0 to the visitors at the interval.
The Okes failed to use the conditions adequately throughout the second half, but still managed to stretch their lead in the third quarter.
Now dominant at scrum time the Okes marched into the hosts 22 and attacked the line in the left corner. After the forwards were repelled, the ball was shifted through the backs and centre Luke Honeychurch cut a sharp line to cross near the posts for the second try, Poynton once more converted.
The Okes soon went further ahead thanks to quick thinking from Richie Friend taking a quick tap penalty and running in unopposed from halfway. With fly half Poynton now replaced, Honeychurch added the extra two. 21-0 up,
Bude came back into the match with their rolling maul doing the damage twice in succession as their forwards crossed for two scores, one converted, in a ten minute spell that reduced the deficit to just nine points.
Okehampton raised their levels of effort and created some clean ball which the backs used well, putting it nicely through the hands, pass to perfection, allowing replacement winger Callum Ausden to cross for a textbook score. The conversion was missed.
Bude rallied for a final effort, looking for a losing bonus point, but the Oke pack defended manfully until the final whistle sounded.