IVYBRIDGE officials were left fuming by rock-bottom Wellington’s decision not to honour their South West Two fixture at Cross-in-Hand.

They still collect five points towards their slender play-off aspirations but the no-show disrupted a planned sponsors’ thank-you day at the club.

Steve Atkinson, the head coach at Ivybridge, made no attempt to sound either diplomatic or sympathetic towards Wellington.

“From a playing point of view it was a bit frustrating as all our boys want is to play rugby every Saturday,” said Atkinson.

“We did speak to a couple of their ‘head sheds’ up there and said if there was any inclination they wouldn’t be able to travel let us know early so we can at least plan something else. They only let us know on Friday evening, which is poor form in my opinion.

“From a club standpoint it was disappointing. We had a sponsors’ day planned for the last home game of the season and we would have had a good few hundred people up here for the day. So we lost out on a good bar take.”

Ivybridge were able to reschedule a colts game against Crediton at short notice, which means there was some rugby for supporters to watch.

Ivybridge Vandals went to Honiton and lost 45-15 as their prospects of avoiding relegation from Devon One receded.

“We had a really good hour, but when it got scrappy we went into our shells,” said Atkinson, who travelled with the team.

“I said to the lads afterwards we need to front-up when teams go scrappy, otherwise we’re going to end up becoming a side that teams know are possibly a little bit soft.

“Rugby wise they are all really good players, just still very green on the other parts of rugby. That comes with experience and I have full confidence in the lads when we get a full second team side out, all guns firing and sticking up for each other.”

Hamish Harris, Cal Law and Josh Measor were the Ivybridge try scorers against Honiton.