ROYAL Wootton Bassett ran in five tries as they claimed a 25-15 bonus point victory over Drifters to secure only their second home win of the season.

Carl Brant scored two while Tucker Blinkhorn and Deri Thomas also crossed for tries, with Dave Hogg kicking three conversions, as the Ballards Ash side eventually won by a 10-point margin.

Bassett have recently come up against a string of sides battling at the top of the Southern Counties North table and have given a good account of themselves, but head coach Alan Low was pleased to watch his side put in a similarly strong display against a team just a place above them.

“We finally put together a performance against a team around us in the league like the ones we have put in against the teams at the top of the league,” he said.

“There was a bit more pressure on us in this one because when we’ve played teams at the top of the league it’s almost nothing to lose rugby, but we put in a really good performance.

“We had a few more chances, and didn’t execute them as well as we could have done, but there were some very strong performances in there.

“It was a big game for us with them being a place higher, and there was a bit of a gap between us, and to get a bonus point and for them not to get a losing one is great for us.”

Elsewhere in the division, Liam Spillane grabbed a late try as Swindon College Old Boys slumped to a 39-10 home defeat to Wallingford, a game from which chairman Martin Peaple believes his side deserved more.

“We went into this game hoping for a bit more to be honest with you and I think we could maybe have taken a bonus point,” he said.

“We had a 10 or 15 minute spell where we went to sleep a bit and they scored three tries, and from that point we slipped from being right there to being out of it.

“Liam (Spillane) was probably our man of the match and deserved to get his try at the end but we might have expected to get a bit more.”

Bassett and Old Boys meet this Saturday.