SUNDAY'S round of the Wiltshire Cup saw Chippenham pitted against Devizes in what turned out to be a game of two distinctly different halves.

The first half started off positively and saw Chippenham take possession from the kick-off and run the ball upfield, straight into a series of rucks. From the breakdown, the ball was passed out wide, ending up with full-back Treacy who raced up the wing to place the ball over the line for the first try of the morning.

This was successfully converted by Taylor.

Two minutes in and seven points up, Chippenham were on their way and a second try followed from Parry and Taylor got the conversion courtesy of a rebound off the post. With the backline firing on all cylinders and quick ball coming out of the rucks, Chippenham continued to make a nuisance of themselves and create havoc among the Devizes defence.

The morning’s third try came when the ball bobbled out of a ruck and Cary scooped up the loose ball and ran over the prone forwards to place the ball over the line.

From the restart, the ball was quickly passed to Chippenham’s fly-half who put in a beautifully weighted kick deep into Devizes’ 22.

Devizes proceeded to give away a penalty and Chippenham decided to run the ball in.

The recipient, Atkin, was brought down just short of the line and Salt picked up the ball from the ensuing ruck and forced his way over to score.

Unfortunately for Devizes, the pressure was relentless and, despite some scrappy play, Chippenham’s fifth came from Brown who came off the back of a scrum and powered his way through the Devizes’ defenders.

Taylor added the conversion to bring the score to 21-0 and Brown went on to add his second of the morning shortly afterwards. From the restart, Devizes chased the ball upfield, but it had been caught by Salt who ran it straight back at Devizes, taking several of their players with him.

In the melee that followed, possession changed hands several times and Chippenham eventually conceded a penalty.

However, they soon regained possession and it wasn’t long before they were back deep in Devizes territory and this time it was Taylor who ran the ball in under the posts, before converting for the extra two points.

Chippenham were unlucky not to score again before the break when Brown put in a strong run, but Barnes was tackled into touch just short of the line.

With the score at 43-0, Chippenham went into the break in an upbeat mood. However, with a change of personnel, Chippenham seemed to lose their momentum and direction and with Devizes taking the opportunity to move up a gear and show their skills, it wasn’t long before they had Chippenham pinned on their try line.

Chippenham had to defend for the best part of 10 minutes but just could not clear their lines.

They gave away penalty after penalty and Devizes took every opportunity to put the pressure on.

Eventually they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts and Rose put the ball between the sticks to get three points on the board. Having broken through the Chippenham defence, Devizes realised that the opposition was not infallible and came at them repeatedly.

The penalties continued to come and Chippenham’s loss of discipline cost them dear.

Devizes scored a try courtesy of Stradling-Yon which was successfully converted and then Chippenham lost Cary to the sinbin.

This seemed to spark Chippenham but still the play was laboured.

They managed to get the ball out wide on several occasions but could not make the breakthrough. Play remained finely balanced until the last five minutes when Chippenham finally found a forward gear and ran in a flurry of tries.

First over the line was Barnes who had raced up the wing and through several tackles to place the ball in the corner.

This was followed shortly afterwards by a try and conversion from Blundell and a final try from Orchard.

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