Bude 27

IVYBRIDGE suffered a very disappointing result which narrowed their lead over fellow relegation strugglers Bude.

Ivybridge started very strongly playing some very good rugby in the first 10 to 15 minutes.

Adam Bradley opened the scoring with a penalty which Bude responses to – making it 3-3 after 15 minutes.

The Ivybridge forwards then set up good line out ball driving forward the try line for the scrum-half Tommy Newman to fall over the line.

The try was converted by Bradley making it 10-3. Then, to the despair of the Ivybridge coaches, Ivybridge played 15 minutes of nearly their worst rugby of the season, missing the tackles and allowing the very good Bude players Kyle Spears and Dan Pearce to dictate terms and score two tries underneath the posts.

The double-blow left Ivybridge trailing 20 - 13 at half time.

After the re-start, Bude again broke the Ivybridge backline defence with the backs finishing off a slick move to score again underneath the posts to make it 27 – 13.

Ivybridge finally pulled their socks up for the last 10 or 15 minutes and forward Mike Cox was at the bottom of 16 forwards to score in the left hand corner to make it 27 – 18. The conversion was missed.

With time running out Ivybridge scored a very good try with Sam King-Scott finishing off a slick move down the right-hand wing.

But again conversion was missed to make the final score 27-23.

This Saturday Ivybridge travel locally to Devonport Services who are riding high in fourth place in the league after a number of very good wins.

As if to serve notice on their visitors, Services have now won four games in a row.