WARMINSTER are through to the Dorset and Wilts 1st XV Senior Vase semi-finals after a superb 33-10 victory at Swanage & Wareham on Saturday.

Meeting their previously higher-league hosts for the first time, the amber and blues found themselves having to defend early on as the Swans looked to make the most of a strong wind in their favour.

Then, from a lineout deep in their own half, fly-half Jimmy Rees shipped a pass to first team debutant Steve Matthews, whose delayed pass to Dan McIntyre broke him through the defence.

The ball was quickly recycled to Rees who drew the defender and passed to winger Ross Williams for the try that he himself converted.

Soon after, they added a second when Williams sprinted clear to score under the posts and again convert.

The home side hit back, using their heavy pack to rumble forward and create the opening try, followed by a further score before the interval.

Swanage also started the second half strongly but the visiting defence held firm and Warminster began to assert their dominance again.

Rees managed to find a gap in the defence and drew two defenders before offloading to full-back Tom Evans, who sprinted through to score under the posts, Jason Sprangle adding the extras.

Introducing Will Thomas and Ryan North from the bench, intelligent work from Sprangle in taking a quick tap penalty saw the ball passed the ball to North, who scored in the corner.

The away side were rampant, but skipper Steve Rowbotham calmly began to slow the game down, opting to kick into corners.

There was one last score before the final whistle, Matthews finishing his debut with a fine score under the posts, which Rees converted.

Rees said: "It was a great game for us and the squad really came together well.

"We have talked about playing what’s in front of us and highlighting the opposition's weaknesses and challenging those weaknesses which I think we did perfectly.''

Warminster will travel to Minety in the last four of the competition.

Corsham were beaten 42-0 at home by Sherborne in the semi-finals of the Dorset & Wilts Cup.