ALAN Low reckons Royal Wootton Bassett’s early-season defeat at North Dorset helped form the foundations of their rise to the top of the table after they secured sweet revenge on Saturday.

Bassett made it eight straight victories as they saw off North Dorset at Ballards Ash to remain three points clear of second-placed Midsomer Norton.

A youthful Bassett side turned in a strong performance against the same opposition earlier in the season but still went down 34-28 away from home.

Head coach Low says his troops learned a lot on that day, all of which has gone a long way in aiding them to get where they are now.

“The performance on Saturday was really good from the lads,” said Low.

“They were one of the two sides we lost against at the start of the year, so we had a bit of a bee in our bonnet about trying to put that result right."

“That being said, we scored 28 points in 30 minutes when we went there and still lost the game.

“We went there with a lot of young players and I think a result and performance like we had at North Dorset were really critical to our learning.

“We played some good stuff there but in rugby, you need to do the hard stuff as well and that’s what we came away with.”

Bassett had to be patient against North Dorset and were only 10-0 in front at half-time, despite dominating the game. Centre Tim Gallimore touched down, while captain David Hogg added a conversion and penalty.

Three more Hogg penalties kept Bassett’s points ticking over, although North Dorset got on the scoreboard through a converted try of their own.

There was never any threat of a fightback, though, and scrum-half Ash Stevens dotted down to seal the win.

Low added: “We were in control of the whole game and I think they only had two inroads into our 22 in the first half.

“We weren’t that far ahead at half-time and the boys came in a bit frustrated. We just said: ‘chill out, you’re in total control, it will come’. Thankfully, we were able to get the job done in the second half.

“I think they’d scored about 360 points before the game but the only points they got against us was from a crossfield kick that bounced over our winger.

“You can’t do anything about that, so to keep the league’s top scorers down to just that was a fantastic effort. Our defence was superb.”