CHIPPENHAM head coach Dan Jefferies was pleased with his side’s ‘growing confidence and unity’, following a 29-15 derby-day victory over Trowbridge at the weekend.

Trowbridge were awarded an early penalty, before Chippenham bounced back with a try. The visitors went in-front just before half-time, but Chippenham re-established their lead at the break after intercepting from a line-out.

In the second-half Chippenham scored another try, and being seven points up with seconds remaining, turned over a break near their line, before the ball went through five or six hands to be received by George Brooks, who went the length of the pitch to seal the win and snatch a bonus point.

“It was a stereotypical derby, as we’d expect it to be, it’s about as big as we get.” Jefferies said, reflecting on the game post-match.

“We knew it was going to be a contest, they had recruited well.

“We’ve had really good preparation, we’ve brought in a few guys, seen a few guys return, and that’s made quite a big difference in how prepared we were.

“It certainly wasn’t our best performance, we had one or two injuries, our captain was missing, Harry Murphy, and we were a bit light in the midfield, but the boys dug deep and got the result we wanted.”

On injuries, Jefferies said: “Harry Murphy will be back this week which will be huge for us, because to a certain extent we played Saturday without a recognised line-out jumper, so that will really help.

“Sam Fellows has got another week, so he will probably miss Cheltenham.

“We’d hope to be close to full fitness soon, there was a couple of knocks at the weekend, but we’re expecting them all to come through ready to hopefully build some momentum.”

Chippenham will look to continue their positive start to the season as they host Cheltenham on Saturday.

Jefferies continued: “Last year we finished really well but we just didn’t get started. Now we’ve done the first part, it’s about kicking on from there.

“I said to the boys after Saturday that last year I had a group of guys when it got tough early in the season we wouldn’t have come away with the points.

“Yes, we got some silverware last year but we were too inconsistent for my liking. Moving forward this year, it’s about consistency, it’s about getting ourselves right in the mix and seeing where that puts us.”