TROWBRIDGE coach Dan Jeffries does not believe his side’s league position fairly reflects how good the Doric Park team truly is after a hard-fought 27-14 win over South West One East bottom side Salisbury on Saturday.

Tries from new signing Ed Nixon, Jack Stone and Will Stanton, as well as 10 points from the boot of Tom Weaver, ensured Jeffries men ended a wretched run of results that had seen just one win claimed from the opening seven league fixtures and kept them within touching distance of the other mid-table sides.

Jeffries reasoned that a difficult run of top-half opponents had led to a downturn in results rather than the deficiency in quality in his side since the start of the season.

"It was a really competitive game, but the weather probably kept it closer than it should have been," said Jeffries.

“With the conditions as they were, we just needed to control territory and force Salisbury into mistakes.

“Winning the key moments made the biggest difference for us on Saturday.

“We’ve had a run of games against top-half teams where we’ve not come away with as many points as we’d like. So to break that duck is quite important to us.

“We’ve now got a run of games against teams in the bottom half, so we know we can pick up some more points and get ourselves up into a league position that we probably deserve to be.”

Elsewhere, Chippenham let the chance of a Wiltshire derby win of their own at home to Marlborough slip through their fingers as a late penalty saw the visitors snatch a 17-14 success.

Marlborough started with the wind at their backs and they were into their stride with a converted try after just five minutes.

This roused Chippenham into life and after building pressure, Marlborough conceded a number of penalties.

Oli Alcorn was unlucky with his first attempt at the posts so opted to kick to touch with the next. The lineout was taken cleanly by Harry Murphy and Viliame Kotobalavu crashed over, although Alcorn missed the conversion in the blustery wind.

Chippenham began to build pressure again and two Alcorn penalties moved the home side into a 11-7 lead.

The referee then decided further action was needed and a yellow card saw Marlborough reduced to 14 men, although no further scores were added before half-time.

The second half saw Chippenham with the benefit of the wind but handling was not the easiest as the ball became increasingly slippery.

Play remained tight and neither side could find the edge, with Alcorn narrowly missing another penalty.

Tom Douglas then took over from the tee for the hosts and also sent an effort wide as Chippenham were unable to turn pressure into points.

Soon it was Marlborough’s turn to march up the pitch and they camped themselves on the Chippenham tryline.

Attack after attack was repelled but Marlborough continued to push and finally scored near the posts, with the conversion a formality.

This irked Chippenham and they charged up the pitch, with Marlborough coughing up another penalty. Douglas made no mistake to level the score at 14-14.

Marlborough launched another attack of their own and won a penalty on the 22m line. After a discussion and with time running out, they opted for the posts and slotted it sweetly through the middle to snatch the win.

Finally, Royal Wootton Bassett maintained their 100 per cent winning start to the new season with a 13-3 success away at Wimborne.

However, wretched weather conditions robbed them of a bonus point for the first time in eight games as driving rain was sustained throughout the 80 minutes.