MINETY bounced back from their opening weekend loss at Warminster to romp to a 47-13 triumph over Royal Wootton Bassett 2nd in Dorset & Wilts One North.

The visitors took the lead in the sixth minute when, after a flowing backs’ move, hard-hitting flanker Ben Sellick burst through the defensive line before centre Tom McAllister popped the ball to second row Matt Stone, the forward side stepping his way to the line to score.

After a period of home pressure Minety struck again. Bassett’s scrum was pushed back near their line and the quick-thinking scrum-half Garin Garland was the first to react to a loose ball, picking up and crashing over for a try which he then converted to put Minety 12-0 up.

Minety’s momentum was halted by an unusual incident in the 30th minute. Winger Dave Cooke collided with the linesman whilst chasing a defensive kick. Both went down, the linesman subsequently requiring five stitches in an ugly head wound and the game was held up for 10 minutes while both received treatment.

Bassett responded with an unconverted try and a penalty to reduce the arrears at half time to 12-8.

The second half started in dramatic fashion with Minety’s number eight Andrew Hibbard breaking out of defence and running 60 metres before being hauled down.

Slick passing pushed the visitors forward and when Hibbard caught Garland’s chip through and passed it to Sam Hughes, the young fly-half side-stepped his way to the line.

Centre Jack Howse scored the bonus-point fourth try with a marvellous individual effort. Picking the ball up 40 metres out, the centre danced his way through the entire Bassett defence to score near the posts.

Garland kicked the conversion and Minety extended their lead to 26-8 before Hibbard, Cooke and McAllister were all held up close to the line but the defence could do nothing to prevent prop forward Mark Glew’s finely-judged charge, Garland again converting.

Stone grabbed his second in the 65th minute, ending a fluent attacking move down the left wing involving Garland, McAllister and Glew, McAllister making no mistake with his conversion.

Bassett scored a consolation try in the 70th minute but Howse completed the scoring with his second, McAllister converting.

Minety coach Andy Grayson said: “That was a really good game with so many positives to come out of it.

"Our defence was fine, we scored some lovely tries and our forwards dominated.

"Special mention to Cameron Smith, coming back to play prop after a couple of years out, but man of the match, for his two tries and great all round work, must go to Matt Stone.”

Melksham put their opening loss to Royal Wootton Bassett 2nd behind them as they clinched a 42-12 success at Supermarine.

The visitors racked up eight tries, despite conceding an early interception score.

Number eight Ben Smith dived over defenders to level matters before Luke Cador's evasive run up the wing added a second try before half-time.

A dominant Melksham scrum set up the next for wing Matt Van Den Boogaard, who showed his pace and strength to extend the visitors' lead.

Second row Ryan Brown took a pass at pace from the back of the scrum, shaking off defenders and powering in for a debut try.

Marine added a converted try but Melksham flanker Harry Clarke stretched for the line to score another and two scores from fly-half Rory Mulgrew topped up their total.

Warminster got the better of a strong Pewsey Vale line-up to wrap up their second league win, with a 33-23 success.

Trailing to an early Pewsey penalty, Warminster worked their way downfield and the backs delivered a fine move for full-back Tom Evans to go in under the posts, centre Jason Sprangle kicking the conversion.

Fly-half Gavin Pratt then created the space for wing Ross Williams to burst through and touch down, Sprangle converting, before Pewsey responded with a converted score of their own.

But Warminster went into the break 21-10 up as a turnover allowed Ollie Pinnell to set up Evans for his second try.

Pewsey added a second try soon after the restart and another plus a penalty took them into the lead as Warminster struggled.

However, another move sent the ball out to Williams, who outsprinted the defence to go under the posts, making the conversion easy for Sprangle to regain the lead.

The victory was sealed as stand-in skipper Alex Jenkins barrelled over for a further try.