ROYAL Wootton Bassett made it back-to-back wins in the Southern Counties South as they battered Stratford-upon-Avon 45-10.

The seven-try win over the Warwickshire outfit came a fortnight after their 29-27 success at local rivals Swindon and has lifted them clear of the drop zone.

Team manager George Loughlin said: “We played our best rugby of the season so far without a doubt. We had beaten Swindon in our last match which had given us a bit of confidence.

“We have been playing well and should have beaten Salisbury and Witney, but we were shaded out of those games and we needed that first victory.

“To be honest it was a close game against Swindon but we played a completely different way against Stratford and we were comfortable winners.”

Kyle Lovell opened the scoring with a push-over try that was converted by Dave Hogg, who kicked five conversions on a blustery afternoon at the Ballards Ash.

Chris Rowland crossed twice, while Sam Nawari, and Tom Fieldsend also dotted down.

Josh McCafferty also grabbed two tries, including one which saw him bulldoze past six players from 20 metres out to score under the posts and serving a powerful reminder that he has put last season’s injury problems behind him.

“Stratford are a top half side and we beat them very comfortably really,” Loughlin said.

“It was 24-0 at half time and we’d already had the bonus point.

“We were congratulating ourselves then in the first ten minutes we had a wobble and it was 24-10.

“I thought ‘oh no’ but we got it back together and it could have been any number at the end.”

Swindon picked up a four-try bonus point in their 45-27 defeat at Salisbury with Adam Westall, Wayne Lower, Stanley North and Marl Chatwin all crossing the whitewash for the Greenbridge Road men.

In Southern Counties South, Swindon College Old Boys were unable to put their 35-0 defeat to Trowbridge behind them as they suffered a 27-17 loss at Frome.

Supermarine suffered a 24-14 loss to Bassett 2nd in Dorset and Wilts One North.