AFTER piling on 71 points against North Dorset in Southern Counties South seven days earlier, Devizes spurned opportunities against Swanage & Wareham last Saturday and came away with a comprehensive 26-0 defeat against a well-organised and committed defence.

From the off, Devizes were up against it as the Swans capitalised on some early indiscipline and punted long for the corner.

After a couple of forays in the rolling maul, the home side dotted down for a converted try.

Devizes responded and were almost in to score in the corner, however, resolute defence kept out a promising attack.

The Swans then headed up the field with an excellent kick chase and were unlucky not to score when the ball was knocked on over the tryline.

This disappointment was shortlived as an overlap down the left wing close to the tryline saw the hosts extend their lead to 14-0.

Swanage were dictating play and Devizes were struggling to adapt to the breakdown.

Things did not improve much in the second half, despite another promising attack ending in a knock-on with the tryline in sight to potentially reduce the deficit.

The Swans seemed to gain further momentum from this and finished the match the stronger, dotting down after a clever kick over the top of the Devizes defence to make it 21-0.

With darkness falling, the home side were in again, jinking around four defenders for a fine individual score to make it 26-0.

In the final seconds, a cheap, off-the ball-incident that injured Devizes' Kieran Hiscock saw the Swans reduced to 14.

The visitors threw everything they could at their hosts in an effort to get some reward on the scoreboard but nothing seemed to stick and the Dorset side saw out a superb bonus-point win.

Elsewhere, Corsham had the consolation of a bonus point in defeat at going down 24-17 away at Swindon.