ROYAL Wootton Bassett head coach Alan Low says that his troops will be ‘chomping at the bit’ to get back into the thick of the action when they play their first game for three weeks on Saturday.

Bassett, who saw their trip south to Dorset Dockers curtailed by the wet weather last weekend, have only ran out three times in the last six weeks and are set to return to ‘mud on boots’ matters when they welcome Southern Counties South table-toppers Midsomer Norton to Ballards Ash.

Low says that he and his fellow coaching staff have done all they can to keep their troops ticking over during their downtime but Bassett are desperate to get some regular gametime back under their collective belt.

“We’ve trained well and we had a particularly good session last Thursday but then the game down in Dorset was called off on Saturday,” said boss Low.

“Dorset play down at Verwood and to be fair to the referee, he went to check the pitch three times in the morning but said that he’d have to call it off if it rained on the Saturday morning – it rained horrendously.

“It was disappointing for the boys but good for me personally because I got the chance to go and watch the seconds, who are playing some nice rugby at the moment.

“It’s been a bit of an up and down period with all of the World Cup games and the lads are all champing at the bit to get back out there – that’s all they want.”

Saturday’s visitors Midsomer Norton are currently eight points clear at the top of the pile after winning all six of their matches so far this season but Low admits that he’s taking a step into the unknown against the Somerset side.

The Bassett coach said: “I’ve never coached against Midsomer Norton before, so I’m not exactly sure what they’ll bring to the party.

“I’m sure they’ll be a good side but I know that we’ve got the tools to beat any team in this league if we get things right.

“We’ve still got a couple of players with long-term injuries in Hamish Keith and Andrew Phoenix.

“I don’t think that we’ll see Hamish until January but hopefully Andrew will be back in a few weeks.

“We’re also not going to have Ely Daragh after he got a knock playing for the Colts – he’s stepped up to the first team and has pretty much been our first-choice centre.

“We are planning to change things by moving Gavin Ougan into the backs on Saturday.

“We want to alleviate a bit of pressure on our fly-half. Gavin’s probably the best-conditioned athlete in this league.”