Corsham had to earn a 6-14 away victory against Calne. The game was a hit with the crowd, which packed the sideline, and tested each player’s skill and nerve as neither team could fully assert any lasting control during the full, tense and enjoyably physical, 80 minutes.

Sensing the game was going to be a close one, Corsham wasted little time by starting the scoring with a perfectly timed drop goal. Soon after Corsham looked as if they would take the game by the scruff of the neck, through their powerful scrumaging and their ability to turn over Calne ball at will. Despite this massive share of possession, Corsham failed to add to their tally, as Calne shut up shop in a sapping rearguard action. Calne’s patience and perseverance was reward through an Andy Donegan penalty. Donegan managed to shake off a challenge from Corsham’s No. 8 earlier in the game to send his conversion sailing between the uprights.

Calne Finished the half on a high and Corsham`s coach was left furious that his team had almost concided 2 trys, both times Neil Young was just caught and stopped meters from the line.

Half time 3-3.

A timely change of tactics, from the restart, earned Corsham a crucial score. During the end of the first half Corsham looked to take on Calne’s backline through their own, with no success and quite often knocking on or spilling ball in the committed tackling. In their first incursion in to the danger zone Corsham kept the ball tight, to the powerful pack, and broke away from the maul’s base for the score, but not the extras.

Despite the major set back, Calne continued their quicker game but were hampered by the referee not making Corsham retreat the full 10 meters, at penalties, and his lack of willingness to award the 2nd penalty after the quick tap was interfered with. Now with two, including the retreating scrum, of Calne’s main attacking weapons rendered useless, Calne had to look hard for a way to get back in the game. Calne’s problems were compounded by top try scorer, Guthrie Holliday, being fully marshalled and effectively out of the game. Fortunately, Neil Young was in fine form as his many jaunts in to the opposition territory were enough to lift Calne’s pack and change the flow of the game.

Donegan added his second penalty, which readdressed the balance and kept Calne in the game, and the pressure on Corsham. The travelling team were showing signs of cracking as their back three made a number off errors when under pressure from some good clearance kicking from Calne. Despite this Calne failed to further probe these week spots as the ball did not get moved past the, ever flatter, centres in the 2nd half.

Becoming frustrated Calne started to concede a number of penalties and Corsham’s small lead was duly extended from one such attempt. Calne rallied for one last big effort in front of their Vice Presidents, showed again that they could take their bigger opponents on, but just as Calne looked to disturb the whitewash, another turnover was conceded, and in affect so was the game. The nail in the coffin was struck two minutes later as some exuberant rucking was penalised with a yellow card and another three points.

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