Bude...10 Ivybridge...6

IVYBRIDGE coach Neil Thomson bewailed his side's current inability to get over the try-line after they played Bude off the park for most of the game and still lost.

Having up to 75 per cent of the play in conditions which saw off most of Devon's fixture list, a losing bonus point was little consolation for the South Hams team, who have now lost eight straight league games.

The defeat means the Bridgers are still dicing uncomfortably with the division's drop zone, although it seems likely only one team from Western Counties West will be relegated.

Thomson, who runs the team with Ivybridge head of rugby Paul Setter, admitted the coaching duo's next move was to find out just why they are dominating games and still losing.

"It was another win that got away from us," said Thomson, who spent most of the second half trying to distinguish between his and Bude's mud-covered players.

"Except for 10 minutes in the first half, when they scored two tries, we held them out very well and our backs, where we have had problems, played a lot better this week.

"We got one penalty in the first half and another in the second (through Adam Bradley), but we just couldn't get the ball over for a try. We'd get the ball up the field, then we'd get stopped for a knock-on.

"The conditions were so bad that it became a forward battle for the second half and frankly I couldn't tell one set of shirts from another."

The match was a reprise of last week's home defeat by Bideford, where Ivybridge dominated much of the match through their pack and Bradley scored 15 points with his boot.

The Bridgers were 15-3 up, but their failure to turn possession into points let Bideford sneak an undeserved 17-15 victory.

Good news for Ivybridge was the return of experienced winger Simon Ebsworth, who has not played for two years, but who had an outstanding game.

Thomson said: "We're getting into an opponents' 22, but we're not scoring the tries.

"We've got two weeks off now and we've got to sit down and try to find out what's not going right – maybe it's the combinations (of players) we're putting out.

"You can't knock the enthusiasm of the players, or the hard work they're putting in and as a coach you can't ask for more than that.

"All right, we took a bonus point from the match, but it could so easily have been four.

"Even Bude said afterwards that they had got away with it and we deserved to win. The Bideford coach said that last week and we're starting to become known as the nearly team, which I don't like at all."

Thomson acknowledged the Bridgers are still hovering too close to bottom side Tiverton, who nevertheless are 15 points adrift of the South Hams outfit.

He said: "I don't think we're safe – personally, I think we need to win three more games to make sure we stay up."