Falmouth 22, Bideford 5

FALMOUTH made it back-to-back wins at their Recreation Ground home for the first time this season with victory at home to Bideford.

Tries from Andrew Searle, Tom Spiller and Dan Hubble sealed the four points against a Bideford side that have now failed to win on any of their last seven away trips.

The win puts the Eagles out of the relegation zone and up to tenth, three points clear of the bottom two.

New signings Rob Coote and Rupert Cooper made their home debuts for the Eagles in the game. Coote had played in the defeat at Wellington the week before, but Cooper made his first appearance since joining from the Cornish Pirates earlier in the week.

Falmouth took an early lead through the boot of fly-half Matt Horton, who kicked a 35-yard penalty after five minutes.

The Eagles were reduced to 14 men soon after when lock Tony Whittle was sent to the sin bin, although the North Devon side failed to capitalise.

That failure came back to haunt them when Falmouth grabbed the opening try of the game after Bideford had their own man sent to the bin. The Eagles, unlike their opponents earlier, made the most of it and prop Searle went over for an unconverted try to earn an 8-0 lead at the break.

No sooner had the teams returned for the second half that Falmouth extended their lead, with full-back Tommy Job linking up with flanker and captain Spiller, who delightfully dotted down. Horton added the extras to put the Eagles 15 points up.

The game was all but over a few minutes later when the hosts clinched their third try, with wing Hubble racing to meet Horton's fine kick and run it in under the posts. Horton kicked his second conversion of the game to take Falmouth's lead to 22-0.

The victory was secured but the Eagles could not find the all-important bonus-point try, and hopes of a clean sheet also went out of the window when the visitors went over late on

Falmouth: T Job, D Hubble, R Coote, S Firth, N Carne, M Horton, S Thomas; A Searle, A Geach, L Barkwill, J Martin, T Whittle, R Cooper, T Spiller (c), T Simmons. Reps: A Bullock, P Garway-Templeman, O Evans.