This had always looked a difficult game, against a Witney team sitting just a place behind Trowbridge in sixth place, nine points behind, but on excellent form. Trowbridge had lost the previous encounter 29-12.

Things were made even harder with Austin Reid, Luke Guffick and Alex Murchison all being out with injuries, whilst Ollie Weaver, Jordan Gott, Ethan Hutt and Lee Fairclough were unavailable. This saw Archie Robertson moving into the centre and Rhodri Thomas making his first appearance of the season off the bench. There was a further blow, when an injury picked up on Friday meant captain Max Day was not able to play fully fit.

Witney started the stronger but the Trowbridge defence managed to keep them at bay for the first 15 minutes but Witney continued to have the better of play and when Trowbridge had the ball, the Witney defence was up quickly to cut off chances, and also forced a number of penalties, to keep Trowbridge trapped in their half.

Witney were in the ascendency in almost all aspects of play and managed to stretch to a 14-0 lead. The Trowbridge cause was not helped when after twenty minutes prop Will Stanton & Scrum half Jack Chapples were injured meaning the replacements were used early in the game.

Just before half time Trowbridge pulled a score back with some slick handling which resulted in a break for Nigel Kershaw who managed to link up with top try scorer Lewis Jordan who touched down once again.

In the 2nd half despite some endeavor from Trowbridge Witney managed to continue to stretch their lead with a combination of strong drives from the forwards, clever chips from their fly half and pace from the outside backs. Nothing seemed to go Trowbridge's way as more injuries occurred meaning players had to play out of position in the 2nd half.

At the end of the game Witney were pushing at the Trowbridge line but resilient defence held them out and they final whistle was blown with the final score 14-45 to Witney.

Even with a fully fit team, Trowbridge would have had to be at their best to have contained this very fit and well organised team, and with the players missing it was no contest.

Positives for Trowbridge were James Macfarlane played well and James Davies made an excellent impact off the bench, and Angus Lean had another good game. Whilst Ashley Chalk and Lewis Jordan looked for openings, but were given hardly any space by the strong Witney defence.

A week off, before a combination cup game against local rivals Chippenham on Wednesday 23rd March. Trowbridge will look to bounce back strongly.