STREAK of lightning Josh Perkin scored a hat-trick of tries after deciding to return to Ivybridge, but he still ended up on the losing side.

Winger Perkin, one of Ivybridge's young bright hopes last season after joining on loan from Plymouth Albion, made the decision to re-sign for the South Hams club at the 11th hour and repaid head coach Spenser Owen's equally rapid decision to put him in the first team with considerable interest.

Defeat was tough luck on Perkin, his team-mates and boss Owen, whose side had dominated their opponents for an appreciable slice of the game.

Owen pointed to two sin-binnings late in the contest as the principal reason why the Bridgers failed to pick up an opening-day win.

He said afterwards: "We should have beaten them, because we were the best team for much of the game and played some quite scintillating rugby at times.

"But we ended up after 60 minutes with 13 men, the result of two sin-binnings and that, and the fact we got a bit tired at the end, cost us the game.

"I am very positive about it, because it was a good performance from a team whose average age is 21 – even though we had one player of 41 in the side.

"You never know with St Ives, who are always very strong at home and there was a possibility that we could have come away with a heavy defeat.

"But in the first half, we were far the better side and we were leaving them hanging. We are a very different team from last year, but we looked like a team who had played to together for 10 years. I am very encouraged for the rest of the season."

Good news for Ivybridge is they did pick up bonus points for scoring four tries, after the RFU introduction of the same bonus points system used in the Premiership and Championship to all other levels of rugby to encourage open and attacking rugby. They failed, however, to pick up an extra point for getting within seven of their opponents.

Kyle Langdon, whose work commitments prevented him from playing a bigger part last season, scored the other Ivybridge try, while former colt Tommy Newman kicked the rest of the points.

Owen said he was delighted to get the speedy Perkin back in his squad for the season.

He said: "It's great to have him back in, because he's a fantastic team player. He telephoned me to ask if he could come back and obviously, I said 'yes'."

St Ives...32 Ivybridge...22

South West One West results: Camborne 17 Avonmouth OB 10, Chippenham 58 Clevedon 15, Old Reds 33 Cullompton 15, Sidmouth 5 Paignton 10, St Ives 32 Ivybridge 22, Wadebridge C 22 Chosen Hill FP 5, Walcot 8 Brixham 48.