LAUNCESTON joint head coach Ian Goldsmith felt his side ‘just weren’t very fluid’ after their unbeaten start in Regional One South West on Saturday at the hands of new leaders Exmouth.

The Cockles trailed 12-11 in the dying stages of the first half thanks to two Ollie Bebbington tries, but after scoring to go ahead before the break, crossed three further times after the restart to head back to East Devon with a perfect 15 points from 15 to start the season.

Goldsmith, who watched his side cross the try line in the second half through Lloyd Duke and Jose Luis Juarez, had no complaints with the outcome and felt his side failed to hit the heights of their performance in victories over Brixham and Chew Valley.

He said: “Frustration is the key word from Saturday, particularly as we gave them three of their tries pretty much straight after we’d scored.

“We always say we’ve got to try and back up our own scores and not let a team get back in it, but three times we did that.

“Their first score was a misplaced pass between Tom (Sandercock) and Jose, but with the way we’re looking to play this season we know that can happen, the second one was even more frustrating as the fella had a free run to the ball, and then the third was one was a mix-up between Mitch (Hawken) and Brandon (Rowley).”

While a defeat always stings, Launceston did manage another four tries for a bonus point, and have now scored over 100 points in their first three games, but Goldsmith was less than pleased with their ball retention, adding: “Some elements of it were good, but 11 turnovers just wasn’t good enough and it was one of those days where it just didn’t click for us. We just weren’t fluid.

In the first half we probably got in their red zone only three times and scored twice which was good, but they were deserving winners.

“They’re comfortably the best team we’ve played so far. They’ve got a very good front row, their lineout went well and they’re very powerful right across the pitch.

“That said, we were still in the game with 20 minutes to go, but then our lineout started to unravel, and if you don’t have that platform, you’re always going to struggle a bit.”

Goldsmith praised Bebbington who is on six tries already, as well as Argentinian playmaker Juarez.

He said: “Ollie is looking really sharp and again we scored four tries which gave us a bonus point, but besides that and the performance of Jose who got the sponsors’ man of the match, there weren’t a lot of other positives really.”

Ivybridge flirted with danger last year before rallying to survive, and have one win and two defeats to their name, including being thrashed 83-8 at Royal Wootton Bassett on Saturday.

Goldsmith said: “They’ve strengthened in the pack this year.

“Matt Finn has returned to the club from Plymstock having made over 300 appearances for them previously, while Dan Collier is there on loan from Plymouth Albion, so we know they’ll be a handful up front.

“But for us I’m hoping we play at a far better pace and tempo, and it’s important not to get bogged down on what is a fairly narrow and small pitch like it was at Chew Valley, and make sure we don’t gift away the ball.

“Team news wise, Ben Bryant’s gone off to university so that’s going to affect the backs again, particularly with James Tucker still likely to be out for another week, but we’ll be pretty similar to Saturday.”