Salisbury RFC sealed a bonus point away win with a midfield wonder-break in a tight away tie at Chippenham.

Salisbury’s 1st XV travelled to Chippenham on Saturday to play the fourth fixture of their Counties 1 Tribute Southern South league campaign.  

Pleasant autumn weather and a perfect synthetic playing surface helped create a lively encounter in which both teams were prepared to play with ball in hand.

In response to a second win from four matches, Salisbury’s Director of Rugby, Jeff Watt said: “It’s great to earn five league points on the road.

"We made hard work of it at times but there’s much to build on from a committed performance all round”. 

Winger Ben Armitage gets past a tackler (Image: John Palmer) Neither side appeared able to take control during a first quarter. Handling errors and a failure to exploit attacking lineouts meant that pressure could not be sustained.

However, Salisbury’s defence was particularly effective in forcing errors and they gradually began to find some fluency. They were the better at off-loading in contact and dynamically changing the point of attack.  

The first points of the match came from an Ollie Bate penalty on 20 minutes. Under pressure Chippenham conceded penalty for an offside. With the visitors now the more confident, centre Tom Edmunds created an opening in midfield.

The ball was moved quickly wide with much of the hosts defence committed for outside centre Dan Hammond to score Salisbury’s first try. Bate added the extras for a 0 – 10 lead in the 30th minute.

Double try-scorer Dan Hammond on the break (Image: John Palmer) Chippenham were positive in response and moved the ball wide quickly only to be thwarted by an excellent cover tackle from wing Theo Andre-Browning.  The visitors cleared at the subsequent lineout.

Now on the front foot, Salisbury broke from a scrummage moved the ball quickly left and then right for a break from No8 Mike Adams to present Hammond with his second try scoring opportunity on 35 minutes.

Trailing 0 – 15, Chippenham responded with greater aggression and tempo. Two quick converted tries followed.

The first from driving maul and the second from a midfield break to finish the half with the match in the balance at 14 – 15.

The hosts started the second half the more confident. They converted a penalty in the 43rd minute to lead 17 – 15.

They continued to play with greater accuracy and pace but progress was checked when they received a yellow card for a high tackle. Salisbury exploited the one-man advantage.

Second row Jake McConnell comes up with the ball (Image: John Palmer) Edmunds created space for Hammond to break and establish field position. The hosts then drove a maul 15 metres for replacement prop Mike Dauwalder to score an unconverted try.

With the score a 17 – 20 entering the final quarter and both sides struggling to establish control, the outcome was uncertain.

The visitors finally settled the match when Edmunds broke cleanly in midfield after a couple phases in attack to score under the posts.

Bate added the conversion to complete a 17 – 27 away win.

Salisbury will host an unbeaten Sherborne at Castle Road on Saturday 12 October.