After defeats at Newbury and Buckingham in the previous two weeks Trowbridge were potentially up against it because their fifth place position was being threatened by Sherborne, who have recently defeated Newbury Blues before Trowbridge lost at the Blues ground. However neighbours Chippenham had given the Doric Park side a favour by beating Sherborne last week, preventing the Dorset side overtaking them. This Saturday’s match with Marlborough followed a thrilling encounter at Marlborough’s ground at The Common when they produced one of the most impressive performances of the season and won 38-33.

Trowbridge welcomed back Ollie Weaver after a trip abroad and wings Ashley Clark and James MacFarlane returned after missing the Buckingham trip. Lee Fairclough was also recalled in the absence of the unavailable Austin Reid. The teams were welcomed to the field with a rendering of ‘Rasputin, Russia’s greatest love machine’ from Chris Coombs’ introductory music. Whether this was appropriate in the light of recent events is open to discussion. Trowbridge played with the slope in the first half and Tom Weaver opened the scoring after five minutes with a straight forward penalty. This was followed by a period of pressure and after ten minutes and a break from Ollie Weaver, Winger Lewis Jordan scored a try in the corner. During this period the Trowbridge defence indicated their intent with a good defensive line which did not allow Marlborough the space to develop attacking lines and they rarely visited the Trowbridge half. After half hour Lee Fairclough broke through the Marlborough defence and scored a try, to make the interval score 16-0 in Trowbridge’s favour. With the cold wind the sides retired to the changing rooms, and spectators would have been wondering whether this lead would be enough to hold out when the visitors had the benefit of the elements behind them.

The visitors came out for the second half with some intent and in the first minutes scored a converted try. This was soon followed by further period of pressure and this resulting in a penalty which brought the score to 16-10.

Although Trowbridge were playing against the elements, they were able to respond and gained more of the share of possession despite being up against a strong set of forwards. Their attacks resulted in a try for No 8 Angus Lean who forced his way over the whitewash to open his try scoring account for the club under the posts Tom Weaver converted and Trowbridge continued to attack. Soon after this Prop Jack Davies when over to increase the Doric Park side’s lead to 28-10 gaining a bonus point for 4 tries. With around a quarter of an hour to go Trowbridge suffered some injuries. After rotating their second rows with their replacement, No 8 Lean suffered a bad cut and left the field and the prop Will Stanton withdrew with a leg injury. Trowbridge were forced to move centre Nigel Kershaw into the back row and the Marlborough gained some ascendancy in the forwards. They scored two tries with around ten minutes to go when they suddenly turned to using their backs who had not threatened until then. Both tries were converted and whilst Trowbridge had largely controlled the match, they were suddenly in danger of losing. However, they ensured that the rest of the match was played in Marlborough territory and the visitors had no further opportunities to steal the match.

So Trowbridge have achieved a double over their Marlborough neighbours to make them unbeaten against Wiltshire opponents this season after a similar double over Chippenham. They now move on to the difficult task of visiting leading contenders Oxford Harlequins next Saturday, but their position in fifth place in the league remains secure for now. The whole squad contributed to a good team effort on the day and stands in good stead for the remainder of the season, especially when their missing players return.