CORSHAM gained revenge for their league defeat to rivals Trowbridge on Saturday with a powerful forward display at a marsh-like Lacock Road.

With the two Wiltshire clubs deep in Southern Counties relegation trouble, both sides fielded weakened teams for this Bath Combination Plate quarter-final encounter. Trowbridge knew they would be second best in the pack and when the heavens opened minutes before kick-off skipper Barry Coombs must have cursed the rugby gods.

He said: "It was our plan to keep the ball away from their forwards and throw it around. But when we saw the weather the game plan just went out of the window. "It was an onslaught on our line for the first 15 minutes but we defended as well as we have done all year. Some of the defending was heroic at times."

Coombs conceded that despite the best efforts of his makeshift pack, the hosts were good value for their hard-fought win. "Corsham deserved it," he said. "Nothing can be taken away from their defence. They performed really well."

Corsham carried a 10-0 lead into the break thanks to a penalty from skipper Denzil Brockhurst and a try from centre Tony Iacono, who took full advantage of a mistake by Trowbridge full back Paul Clark.

The referee left the field at half-time to change his mud-covered shirt, only to re-emerge for the second period wearing pink. There was hardly time for the players to share a joke before Trowbridge reduced the arrears when Jon Parfitt dived over for an unconverted try.

The Green Lane outfit piled on the pressure in the closing stages but it was Corsham who sealed victory with a late penalty from fly half Haydn Brockhurst.

Said Coombs: "As much as we would have loved to have reached the final of this competition, we have an even bigger battle to contend with in the league. We have now got to focus all our energies on winning our last two matches and hope that we can stay out of the bottom two.

"It's not clear yet whether two or three teams will go down but we know what we have to do."

Trowbridge travel to Blandford tomorrow while Corsham host North Dorset at Lacock Road.