MARLBOROUGH’S quest to be crowned Southern Counties South champions suffered a setback when they were beaten 28-12 away at second-from-bottom Swanage & Wareham at the weekend.

The defeat sees Marlborough fall eight points behind leaders Trowbridge with two games remaining, with the two sides set to meet this coming weekend.

Elisi Vunipola’s side were not helped by having to travel with a depleted squad of 16 players, but that was no excuse for the level of performance put in.

Although Marlborough had a dominant scrum, on which they failed to capitalise, they were outplayed in every other department.

The visitors played into a strong wind in the first half and were 8-0 down at the break.

After a frank team-talk, things did start to change with the wind behind them and Marlborough actually edged into a one-point lead.

However, Swanage were just too good and the Marlborough defence was poor, with numerous missed tackles and 19 penalties conceded, ensuring the home side were always on the front foot.

It was better news for Corsham as they solidified their place in the top four with a dominant 62-5 win at home to bottom side Blandford.

Khalif Barnes finished with a 22-point haul, including two tries, while Joe Beavis ran in a hat-trick, Iain Cook got two and there was a try apiece for Adam Draper, Will Chivers and Liam Snape.

Devizes faced a rare Friday night fixture and fell to another away defeat, this time at the hands of relegation battling Walcot 29-14.

The home side started the better and continued in that vein throughout the 80 minutes, with Devizes putting in some flashes of good rugby but making too many errors.

Walcot went into the lead with a converted try as their inside centre found a gap in the defensive line as the Saddlebacks struggled to adapt to the offside line, resulting in several penalties conceded to give the home side territory and possession.

Despite the early setback, good runs from Toby Randall, Josh Gould and Matt Strong edged Devizes up field and Rory Brown found the gap to power through before converting to level the scores.

Walcot had the better of the remainder of the half after Matt Strong was sent to the sin-bin, but it remained all-square at the break.

From the start of the second half, Devizes responded well until a turnover deep in Walcot territory saw a winger kick ahead and ground the ball for a try.

Devizes responded well again but Walcot came back with two tries through their outside centre to seal their bonus point.

A response was needed and hope was given when Rhys Harries carried hard and offloaded for Travis Orwin to race in for a converted try.

With a few minutes remaining, Devizes were camped deep in Walcot territory, but the hosts were able to hold off the onslaught before countering through their outside centre, who sealed the win with his hat-trick.