AN away trouncing meant there was no fairytale ending for beleaguered Salisbury RFC near the picturesque Windsor Castle on a sunny Saturday.

Windsor, in third and fancying themselves for promotion glory, showed no signs of rustiness against Salisbury despite their pitch recently being submerged in two feet of water.

Both sides probed each others’ defences at the start and, when Michael Roberts picked a smashing line, Salisbury looked to have good field position but the hosts’ aggressive approach at the breakdown, a feature throughout, turned the ball over and the danger was averted. The deadlock was broken when Windsor scored in the corner with a simply worked overlap. The visitors were falling foul of the referee and when Captain Josh Green was sent to the bin for a dangerous tackle seen by no one bar the official, Windsor took full advantage and used their weight to bounce their large number 8 over for a converted score.

Salisbury were not cowed and responded with a period of pressure and when Andy Herriott made a scintillating break before chipping ahead and gathering his own kick, Windsor knocked the ball into touch to halt the move.

The second half saw Salisbury tiring as the massive defensive effort required foiling the numerous home side drives took its toll. There were brief flurries into the home half, Phil Carr broke from a kick off but the eagle eyed official had spotted a knock forward and pulled him back, but Salisbury never really looked like crossing the line in a 38 nil defeat.

Neil Loader’s side are at home to strugglers Buckingham on Saturday.

l The Colts also suffered defeat, as they went down 12- 14 to Trowbridge Colts.