Bude 5pts Truro 38pts

TRURO travelled to Bude on Saturday with everything to lose in this Cornwall County Cup quarter-final match. On one side, the odds were on the South West One side piling up a cricket score against their lowly Cornwall & Devon League opponents; on the other was a potential banana skin for them to avoid at all costs.

With Mark Manton, Martyn Addinall, Grant Nicholls and Dave Sibson all unavailable for Truro, there was the possibility of an upset. However, Truro do have some strength in depth these days, and the game, after a second half struggle, was to go their way.

The game was played in superb dry and sunny conditions, and with the Bude ground staff having produced an excellent playing surface, it was up to both sides to produce a decent game of rugby for a rather sparce crowd to enjoy.

In the game of "two halves", they were going to relish the first and be frustrated in the second! The game opened brightly for both teams and it was the City side who were to show their superior skills and confidence when they turned down a certain three points after only two minutes of play on the clock.

A penalty kick, awarded 10 metres out and under the posts, was declined and a scrummage taken instead. A quick clean ball was picked up by the impressive Simon Griffiths who very nearly scored from it. Truro had shown their intentions, and it didn't take long for the first score to materialise. A scrum ball awarded to the home side, only five metres from their own line, was won against the head by Truro's hooker Tim Gay. The ball was picked up by Griffiths and fed through several pairs of hands before youngster, Richard Bennetts, who was making his full Ist XV debut, scored wide out to give Truro a deserved 5-0 lead.

Truro applied all the pressure during the first 10 minutes of play, and were denied scores by centre Ben Salt and full back Tony Penrose when annoying minor handling errors denied them certain scores.

Despite the early denials, it took only 12 minutes of play for Truro to record their second score. Constant pressure brought a penalty five metres out from the Bude goal line. A quick tap and feed from scrum half Mark Richards saw him feed Griffiths to score under the posts. Richards converted to increase the visitors lead to 12pts.

Truro were now buzzing, and every bit of possession was well used in their pursuit of further scores. With 16 minutes of play gone, a superb phase of play saw the Truro forwards recycle the ball four times before feeding their backs with quick, clean ball. With the ball passed at speed and precision, it was Penrose who popped over in the left hand corner to score a cracking try. Richards converted from wide out to put 19 points between them and their opponents.

The try of the match came after 21 minutes of play. Bude were pushed off their own ball some 40 metres from their own line. A great break from Ben Salt saw him draw in his opposite number before feeding the "Cornish Express", David Coombes, to go over in the corner. With Truro scoring at a rate of a point a minute, the home supporters must have feared the worst, and within 10 minutes the score was to increase when, after a great take at a line-out by the ever impressive Richard Spear, the whole of the Truro back line was involved in a move that saw the re-emergent James Austin force his way over the try line. Richards converted the try.

After 35 minutes Bude managed to suck in the Truro defence before replacement winger, Zennen Bell scored a well worked try in the corner. Half time saw Truro with a winning lead of 31 pts to five.

The second half, which should have seen the visitors consolidate their lead, was to see a different pattern to the game.

Those who missed the first half must have thought that it was the home side who were in control of the game early in the second half. Bude gave it everything in their pursuit of a score. In an imminently forgettable second half, Truro had lost their pattern and shape, performing like a team of individuals, and it was Bude who looked most like scoring.

It took Truro 15 minutes to settle into their game again, and a frustrating period of play was to follow. Despite some well constructed phases of play, they too often held onto the ball when tries were there for taking. Prop, Dave Moyle, had several driving runs from close out which could and maybe should have resulted in scores. The same happened to Griffiths and Penrose, both of whom were denied scores when scoring looked easier than not.

It took 30 minutes of the second half before Truro were to score again. After 71 minutes, Truro managed to put a period of play together that saw Mark Richards score in the corner after sucking in the Bude defence. He converted his own score to make the final outcome a 38-5 victory for the City side.

Truro manager, Paul Caruana, said after the match: "Today saw us put together an excellent first 35 minutes. With the game won by half time, we totally took our foot off the gas in the second half and allowed Bude to run the show for 15 minutes or so.

"Having had no game for three weeks, we were ring rusty and needed a game such as this to get back into the swing of things. There can be no excuse for the way we lost our shape and patterns after half time, and our players know that they under-performed in the second half. We will put it down as a bad day at the office, and hope that we can get it right before our next league game against Swanage and Wareham next Saturday."