Falmouth 16, Bideford 10

The Eagles made it three wins from four games in the Western Counties West League with a hard-fought 16-10 victory over Bideford on Saturday, writes Joseph Macey.

The game was played in the pouring rain which made for a scrappy game but a try from Alex Tacchi and three penalties courtesy of Justyn Irons got Falmouth maximum points.

Head Coach, Graham Whitmore, said: “I thought the start was pretty good and I thought there was opportunities where we should have been more clinical and as I said to the boys before the game the longer that Bideford were in the game their confidence would rise and the challenge would increase which was the case.

“It got a little bit nervous at times and towards the end they had a strong spell that we fortunately came out of and saw the game through but one thing we have shown in the past and showed towards the end of last season was that character and resilience that hopefully will see us through these tough times.”

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In a low scoring game it took until the 20th minute for the deadlock to be broken as Falmouth took the lead through Tacchi.

Despite all of Falmouth’s dominance it was the away side who went into half time with the lead as a lapse in concentration let in Dean Follen to run clear and score, if The Eagles thought they’d be in for an easy ride against winless Bideford they were in for a rude awakening.

Falmouth came out rejuvenated in the second half and Justyn Irons scored a penalty within five minutes of the restart to draw level, Irons added two more penalties to extend the lead and despite late Bideford pressure Falmouth held the lead until the final whistle.

Captain, Tom Spiller, said: “The boys fronted up with the amount of changes that we had, there was eleven positional changes from last week and different combinations coming in and we didn’t really know what to expect from Bideford so we adjusted our plan slightly from last week and the boys played well to grind out a result.

“The pitch was so greasy and we prefer a dry track to throw the ball around a little bit but there was a lot of balls down on the floor today and it was just one of those games where the conditions made it difficult for us.”

  • Falmouth’s next game is an away fixture against Chard on Saturday, kick off 3pm.

Falmouth RFC: A. Tacchi, AJ. Geach, A. Searle, J. Baglow, T. Ward, T. Emmins, T. Spiller, T. Simmons, M. Austin, J. Irons, N. Carne, T. Edmonds, C. Penry, S. Firth, M. Horton. Reps: B. Cock, A. Bullock, A. Harding

Packet pick: Mike Austin

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