SALISBURY RFC enforced their superiority over North Dorset with an emphatic victory to elongate their winning run to four games.

It was a perfect beginning to 2015 for the green and white troops, whose 52-12 win has put them within three points of title-rivals Sherborne in Southern Counties South, as the tussle for promotion goes on.

Despite the constant blowing gale, Salisbury entered the driving seat early on by scoring four tries in the first half, all of which were skilfully converted by consistent kicker Tom Pottage.

The opening try came after 10 minutes when, from a scrum, Dave Tonge expertly offloaded to Andy Herriot who went over to score.

The second came from the fleet-footed Theo Daniel, who ran from just inside the home side’s half and completely outran the defence to score close to the corner flag.

Not to be outdone and to show the versatility within the Salisbury squad, the forwards set up a driving maul just inside the Dorset 22 which allowed Iain Miller to display his usual skill of dropping on the ball just over the line for another score.

And on the stroke of the interval, the superb Tonge went in under the post for the fourth try of the half.

North Dorset bounced back at the beginning of the second half with a try, but Salisbury’s Jon Goldsmith quickly scored under the posts to ensure the result would never be infringed.

Two quick tries from Howie Stewart, either side of a yellow card for the North Dorset number 8, gave Salisbury a comfortable lead going into the last 20 minutes, despite a try and conversion from North Dorset making the score with 12-45 late on.

Luke Ensouf, whose strength had tormented North Dorset most of the second half, sold the defence a dummy and went in to score close to the post from the resulting conversion from Pottage to close the encounter.

  • Salisbury RFC are hoping to attract a bumper crowd when the road to Twickenham gets underway a week Saturday. They are at home to Thatcham in the Intermediate Cup (2pm).