TROWBRIDGE marched into the final of the Dorset & Wilts Cup with a convincing 43-14 win over Devizes.

While the affair was closer than the opening game of the season, where Trowbridge were 62-12 victors, the visitors to London Road recovered from a shaky start to control proceedings throughout.

The hosts got off to the perfect start when a stray pass from Trowbridge in the opening minute found the turf and winger Dave Martin was on hand to go over the line, Rory Brown adding the extras.

Trowbridge then started to play with more control and from a rolling maul, Adam Sullivan went over to reduce the deficit to two points.

A second try followed quickly for the visitors from Lewis Jordan and Devizes’ cause was not helped when Ross Burton departed just after the first quarter with broken ribs, replaced by Matt Bishop making his first team debut.

At one of the first scrums following, a collapse resulted in hooker Ben Wilkinson also departing from the action which meant a second front row sub in the form of Seb Hutchings was used.

Despite the newly-formed front row getting an edge on their opponents, it was out wide where Trowbridge prevailed, with two further scores from Jordan and Ashley Chalk before the break.

Trowbridge added a further three tries in the second half with Jordan completing his hat-trick to add to scores from prop Sam Edwards and Shai Bonnick.

It was Devizes who finished the scoring when Brown found a gap to exploit after Craig Bryant had seen his effort from a metre out chalked off but that did not take the shine off the result for Trowbridge head coach Dan Jeffries.

“It was not as comfortable as the first game but it was probably a better performance and we were using more of the squad,” he said.

“We were bouncing back after a tough week so we were happy with the result.

“We had a squad of 22 and it was good to give the seven subs a run-out once we got comfortable.

“It couldn’t have been a worse start following the week before.

“We started the game seven down and to be fair to the lads, we rallied really well, but after the setback of the previous week, that could have hit us.

“We then started to play with the control that we should have.

“Overall we were really happy, we bounced back really well and gave a lot of guys a run out.

“That’s got us in the cup final and got us a bit of a target and then we have got the league to focus back on.”