ROYAL Wootton Bassett took a big stride towards safety in South West One East with an impressive 39-19 home win over Banbury.

The visitors started brightly and were over the whitewash within the opening four minutes however, after a period of pressure from the hosts, Elye Darragh was able to reduce the deficit to 7-5.

Ieuan Clements' boot put Bassett in front before Josh McCafferty drove over the line to give the hosts a 13-7 half-time lead.

Just six minutes after the restart, Chris Patterson touched down to finish off a strong Bassett drive, before full-back Tom Fieldsend collected his own chip through to extend the hosts’ advantage.

A second from Patterson and a score from back row Gavin Ougan, both converted by Fieldsend, put Bassett in an unassailable lead, despite two late tries from the visitors.

Head coach Alan Low was delighted with his side’s first back-to-back victories since the beginning of October.

“We always talk about getting the performance right and we played well,” he said. “They got a quick start on us and we started a little bit slowly, which is unusual for us, but then the boys settled into the game and we put a really strong performance together.

“We’re getting back to a more settled side at the moment with more competition in the squad at the moment.

“It’s the first time we have had some proper headaches for a while and that is with Dave Hogg, Sam Robertson and Dan Reece still injured.

“It was strong across the board, from one to eighteen, it was highly competitive.

“The boys are starting to show, we’ve got a slightly harder track which is starting to suit us and we know we need to start to play and ramp the tempo up.”

“I’m chuffed to bits. They scored a couple of late tries in the last 10 minutes of the game so that made it look a little bit closer than it was.”

Royal Wootton Bassett’s Ballards Ash ground will host six RFU Women’s Cup Finals on Saturday.

The day kicks off with the Junior Plate final between Harrogate and Windsor, as well as the Intermediate Cup clash featuring Hartpury Gloucester and West Park Leeds at 11.30am.

Then at 1.15pm, Lewes and Reading Abbey battle it out for the Junior Cup, while Loughborough and West Bridgford contest the Intermediate Plate final.

The day ends with Bristol taking on Worcester in the Senior Plate at 3pm before the Senior Cup finale, between Aylesford and Wasps, at 3.30pm.