ROYAL Wootton Bassett’s unbeaten record in South West One East remained intact by the barest of margins after a 17-15 victory away at Buckingham last weekend.
The hosts – who were previously unbeaten on their own patch – were trailing by seven points with five minutes to go before clawing their way back into the match and giving themselves two opportunities to win the game through late kicks.
Yet both were missed, and Alan Low’s men held on to the points to maintain their four-point lead at the top.
The Bassett coach felt his team was clearly the better of the two, but admitted they were forced to rely on a degree of luck to continue their winning record.
Low said: “It was a game that we were in control of, but we could have lost it in the last three minutes.
“They scored a try with five minutes to play and then hit the upright with the conversion.
“From kick-off, we put them under a load of pressure and ending up being on the receiving end of a penalty.
“They kicked that down towards the corner and got another penalty on the 10 meter line in added time.
“Thankfully they missed the penalty with the last kick of the game which would have won it for them.”
While Low was pleased his side were able to hold on for victory, the Bassett coach said there was plenty to work on ahead of this weekend’s home match against Beaconsfield.
Low did not wish to criticise the performance of the referee, but said his players struggled to understand some decisions from the man in the middle.
Rather than blame the referee for an increased penalty count for his players, Low said he will talk to his squad about how to better deal with frustrations in future so it does not come back to haunt them.
He said: “It was a frustrating day at the office for us – we felt like we were clearly the stronger side, but the players really struggled with some of the interpretations from the guy in the middle this week.
“That’s something we’ll have to look at in terms of how we deal with the referee.
“Our penalty count was through the roof this week, so we’ll need to take a look at why that was.
“We had a fantastic start, but we need to have a look at some things defensively.
“Buckingham have been very, very strong at home this season, so we can certainly take some positives out of that.
“Our defence was still strong too which was great.”
Elsewhere, Chippenham roared to an impressive 40-29 win over Old Patesians in South West One East and Marlborough squeezed past Old Centralians 20-19.
Trowbridge dropped down to 13th after a 21-5 loss away to relegation rivals Windsor.
Swindon drew 18-18 with Combe Down to remain fourth in Southern Counties South while Swindon College Old Boys were beaten 45-14 by second place Grove.
Meanwhile, Supermarine went down 19-26 at home to Swindon College Old Boys II in Dorset & Wilts Two North.
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