Corsham win at North Dorset in Southern Counties South but Devizes go down

Tim Draper’s side scored seven tries in all as Hamish Milner led the way with two. Alex Twigg, Dom Riccio, Kieran Dry, Kalif Barnes and Will Chivers also crossed, with Barnes converting twice.

Corsham took an early lead and continued to score regularly throughout the first half, securing the try bonus point before the break.

North Dorset were always behind but kept fighting back to keep the score within two scores.

The second half followed a similar pattern, with Corsham holding firm to secure a win that moves them up into the top half of the table.

Coach Draper said: “It’s never seems easy to get a result at North Dorset, so we are really pleased with the outcome.

“It was a mixed performance, though. We were excellent in attack, with all of the tries being well-built team scores rather than individual efforts.

“However, it was disappointing to concede the number of tries that we did, and we will need to look at this closely before we play our next game.”

Elsewhere, an injury-ravaged Devizes squad fronted up against Grove, only to come away with nothing in a 44-18 defeat.

Devizes started well, playing through the phases and making inroads into the Grove defence, only to lose skipper Rory Brown to the growing injury list early on.

The visitors did get their noses in front, though, as Chris Barter slotted a penalty.

Grove then started to play their game and managed to turn over possession before breaking up field for a try in the corner.

The hosts then capitalised on shortcomings in the Devizes defence to score two more tries, and then they secured the bonus-point try with the last play of the half to make it 20-3 at the break.

Devizes regrouped early in the second half and showed signs of a comeback as Jack Mason powered through the Grove defence to dive over the line.

Barter converted and kicked a penalty soon afterwards to make it 20-13.

Devizes played some good rugby when they had the ball, showing slick handling throughout. However, Grove were quick to counter on mistakes and another converted try and penalty pulled them further in front.

A Devizes’ comeback was back on when good handling saw Lewis Dodds gallop through a gap in the Grove defence to make it 30-18.

However, this was stopped in its tracks with eight minutes remaining as a pacy Grove winger dotted down again, and things then got worse for the visitors when Jorge Wadman was sin-binned.

The home side made the most of their numerical advantage in the closing stages and another converted try rounded off the scoring.