A LAST-MINUTE converted try did little to alleviate Pewsey’s torment at clocking up the 13th Dorset & Wilts One North loss in a row.

Strong up front, Pewsey yet again suffered from lack of availability in the backs who were under pressure from the start.

Dogged defence in the first half kept the Melksham back line at bay, but Pewsey leaked two unconverted tries before half time.

The first came as Melksham winger Rory Mulgrew touched down after Connor Randall had offloaded out of a tackle.

Upon the restart the ball went out wide again for Mulgrew to take his second.

Pewsey produced some fine attacking rugby but were unable to convert pressure into points, missing two penalty opportunities.

At the start of the second half Pewsey attacked but it was Melksham who crossed again as Phil Stone’s evasive run through the centre saw him pass to Phil Williams for an unconverted try Melksham then intercepted a Vale attack and Randall gathered the ball and, breaking from under the posts, passed to Adam Davies and onto Callum Hurn to score an end-to-end try.

Another try, this time from Davies, made it 25-0 to the home side.

Melksham were to score again twice more through players coming off the bench.

Rob Thorne intercepted a pass to touch down and Josh Osak scored in his first game for the team.

Both conversions were landed by man of the match Simon Foster.

Pewsey were determined throughout and were finally rewarded in the dying minutes as rapid ball to wing Matty Mercer saw him over in the corner, converted by scrum-half Tom Taylor.

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