The first 20 minutes saw the Saints apply wave after wave of pressure against their robust opposition, the travelling massive saw them squander 3 clear opportunities to cross the line.

On the 10-minute mark Liam Freeman had struck a penalty to ease early nerves and the way the Saints were swarming over Bude you’d have thought in Ashley Morcom’s words a 31 pointer was coming. In fact, it was nearly 25 minutes before Bude breached the Saints 22 and after a couple of soft penalties they came away with a try by Wing Tim Green with a clean conversion by former Saints favourite Dan Pearce. However hard the Saints tried to recover from this, unforced handling errors or rushing through the phases meant that the half ended 7 -3 up to the home side.

After some carefully delivered constructive criticism from Coach Ashley Morcom, the Saints took control of the early part of the second half after some early jitters. A most sublime drop goal by full back Liam Freeman took the score within a point and tilted the game’s momentum towards the Saints. A few minutes later Freeman again converted a cleanly struck penalty to take the lead and further frustrated the hosts with another to edge the Saints into a 7-12 lead. Breathing a little easier and with all replacements made the Saints were looking well placed to grab the win.

However, echoing the previous week against the Camels, a poor restart let Bude approach the Saints try line. It required some resolute defending from Ian Venner to ensure that they cleared their lines with a turnover penalty. The final minutes were played in the home half and while two attempted penalty kicks by Freeman failed to add to the scoreboard, they ate up any added on time.
It wasn’t pretty, 70% of possession was not turned in to points BUT it was an away win. The Saints have moved up to 6th in the league table and at this early stage of the season there was the reminder that there are no easy games in this league.

Next up, Saints are at home to St Ives and thanks to the vagaries of the fixture list it will there fourth Cornish Derby in a row.

1, Hugh Noott
2, Miles Davey (C)
3, Mark Martin
4, Adam Pearce
5, Josh Phillips
6, Andy Inch
7, Ian Venner
8, Max Duggan
9, Andy Ashwin
10, Callum Wilson
11, Ben Chenoweth
12, Shane Johns
13, James Martin – Man of the Match
14, Cavan Boyer
15, Liam Freeman – Pens 10, 60, 65, Drop Goal 52

Replacements all used
16, Dan Jane
17, Charlie Nicholson - Front Row
18, Jack Nelson

Bude
Tim Green Try 25
Dan Pearce Con 26