TROWBRIDGE responded to the previous week's narrow defeat at Bournemouth in excellent fashion as they eased to a comfortable win over their neighbours on Saturday.

This was the first time the two had met in the league for nearly two years and with both sides eager to build on their mixed starts to the season it was Trowbridge who took the honours.

It was a frantic opening ten minutes with both sides looking to play expansive rugby but also putting in some hard tackles.

Trowbridge took the lead with some exciting interplay between forwards and backs resulting in a penalty near the 22 following Westbury's attempts to stop quick ball. Fly half Francis Chandler put the kick over to make the score 3-0.

It was Westbury however who ignited and put their game plan to use by keeping the ball in their pack and using it to their full advantage to make heavy gains into the Trowbridge defence.

Only some astute and sometimes fierce tackling by the Trowbridge pack near their line prevented Westbury from taking the lead.

Westbury managed to keep phase after phase with the ball and when it was passed out their fly half cut open the Trowbridge line to force his way for a well taken try.

The match then proved an interesting encounter with Trowbridge keen to play an expansive game, Westbury keen to keep the ball as tight as possible and use their big forwards to try and wear down the Trowbridge defence.

Neither sets of backs could get clean ball from their own scrums which resulted in a lot of turnovers from the set pieces.

With 30 minutes gone, Trowbridge broke away from the half way line and nearly scored in the corner but were held up by some last ditch tackling. Finally the ball was spread wide for flanker Lee McClurg to hand off two players and force his way over the line. Francis Chandler added the conversion.

Within two minutes Trowbridge managed to put together six phases of play to work the ball into the left corner.

From there the ball was passed wide for prop Jason Reed to collect the ball ten metres out from the post and brush off two defenders to crash over the line and give his side a 17-5 lead at half-time.

In the second half, Westbury dominated the early set pieces but were unable to make any headway through the Trowbridge defensive line.

After some excellent ball handling skills by the Trowbridge pack, who continued to compete well against their bigger opponents, centre Adam Sullivan broke clear to score a try which Chandler converted.

Minutes later, winger Nick Little passed to scrum half Tom Hanham who ran 30 yards to add another try and take the game away from Westbury.

For the last quarter of the match Westbury kept possession but never really threatened Trowbridge. Finally their forwards were able to build up some momentum which enabled their flanker to cross over in the corner for a well worked try.