ROYAL Wootton Bassett head coach Alan Low admitted that his side’s crushing cup defeat at the hands of county rivals Devizes ‘cut really deep’.

Bassett made the trip to the Saddlebacks looking to get their Dorset & Wilts 1st XV Cup campaign off to a flyer but their ambitions were brought to a shuddering halt as they were thrashed 67-10 at London Road.

All Low can do is chalk his young team’s display down as a learning experience and the Bassett chief is hoping that his players will react positively to their cup humbling.

“For the first 15 minutes or so, we were okay but the game got away from us and our heads went down,” said Low. “We’ve got a lot of young players who are all used to winning games at colts level but they can’t expect to just go out there and just win games without working hard.

“The result cut really deep but maybe it will be the best thing for them, hopefully it’ll be a good learning experience for them.

“They can react in two ways now. They can show a reaction and work hard to put it right or they can rest on their laurels.”

Hosts Devizes quickly got in their stride, with a left-wing break allowing Luke Rapson to cross over for the first score of the game and scrum-half Rory Brown soon followed, with Andy Thompson converting.

A Thompson penalty increased the deficit before Bassett fly-half Matt Loader got Bassett up and running with a drop goal.

But Devizes’ Josh Lewis scored his seventh try in four matches, converted by Thompson, before Wadman cantered over just before the break, Thompson again adding the extras.

Wadman sprinted over once again in the second half, Thompson kicking successfully again, and then Craig Bryant got in on the act, with Thompson adding the extras once more.

Rapson claimed his second try of the afternoon on the counter-attack but Bassett clinched some late consolation through Bruce Elliott, David Hogg converting.

But Travis Orwin, Josh Gould and Mark Carter all went over late on as the Devizes deluge continued through to the final whistle.