ROYAL Wootton Bassett coach George Loughlin hopes Saturday’s win against Marlow can inspire his side to finish the season in the top half of the South West One East division.

Loughlin’s men faced an in-form Marlow team away from home and delivered a strong second-half performance to wrap up another five points, leaving them just three points short of fifth placed Salisbury.

Fly-half Tom Fieldsend opened the scoring for Bassett when touching down in the seventh minute before Marlow hit back with a converted try to level the score.

Chris Patterson powered over to re-establish the visitors’ lead before Chris Rowland and Sam Robinson secured the try-scoring bonus point before half time.

Though Marlow levelled the game at 24-24 immediately after the break, further tries from Patterson, Fin Dewar and Gavin Ougan took the game beyond the hosts’ reach as they won 59-34.

Loughlin said: “Saturday was a good win for us. We hit them in a run of form. They may be going down a division, but they’ve played well since Christmas.

“It gives us a chance of a top half finish, which would put the icing on the cake for this season.”

Loughlin was particularly pleased with the performance of teenager Fin Dewar.

Dewar, who plays at academy level for England in rugby sevens, took advantage of the drier conditions to exploit the additional space available.

“Fin Dewar hasn’t displayed his true form this year in the heavy conditions,” said Loughlin

“But he’s a real talent and is trying to learn the full game. He played exceptionally well.”

Elsewhere Swindon suffered their heaviest defeat of the year when crashing to a 92-15 loss at Chippenham.

Mike Thompson’s men were immediately put on the back foot when Chippenham skipper Ryan Surry crossed over to register the home side’s first try of the afternoon.

Jake Unwin crossed over to double Chippenham’s lead before Swindon hit back to half the home side’s lead, making it 14-7.

But a dominant second half saw the hosts add another seven tries to secure an emphatic 77-point victory.

There was also disappointment for Swindon College Old Boys as they slipped to a narrow home 22-20 defeat to Sherborne while Supermarine were also on the wrong end of a result, losing 36-17 to Chippenham 2nd.