TROWBRIDGE coach Dan Jeffries praised the second-half performance of his men after they secured the Southern Counties South league title at Marlborough on Saturday.

Jeffries’ men ended the opening half with an 11-point advantage, but faced the prospect of being pegged back when kicking uphill during the last 40.

Though Marlborough applied growing pressure as the game edged to its conclusion, Trowbridge exploited the gaps left in the home side’s defence to score twice through Matt Howard and substitute Dave Finley.

The result confirmed promotion for Trowbridge, who will play North Dorset in their season finale this Saturday.

Jeffries said: “They had some really big runners and at half-time they were 16-5 down with them ready to play down the hill.

“They would’ve been relatively happy with the narrow margin at half-time.

“They spent the first 25 minutes of the second half just attacking us. But we gave no penalties away and no window to get into the game.

“They had a really good set of rotations and were creative when they attacked us, but we solved the problems that were thrown at us.

“We’d have definitely chose to go downhill, they won the toss and got what they were looking for.

“We questioned if 11 points was enough of a gap for us at half time with the hill, it can make a big difference.”

Tom Weaver’s penalty put Trowbridge ahead in the early phases of Saturday’s table-topping clash before the hosts hit back with a well-worked try of their own.

Scott Mullins recorded Trowbridge’s first try of the afternoon before Tom Weaver’s penalty and Ashley Chalk try opened up an 11-point lead for Jeffries’ side at half time.

Late efforts from Howard and Finley wrapped up the title for Trowbridge and Jeffries admitted he knew his side were capable of a strong end-of-season performance.

He said: “We knew all week we hadn’t put in our best performance at any point all year.

“We knew we had one due for us.

“But we took our chances really well. Our defence held out well too and they struggled to create any line breaks, though they held onto the ball for huge chunks of time.

“When we got our chances, we took them.

“We started the year with two losses, it shocked all of us.

“We underperformed in the first couple of games and put ourselves in a tough situation.

“The boys fought back though and our form of late is a sign of how much the team has grown.”