A SLOW start from Salisbury RFC proved costly as they lost a second crucial contest to one of Southern Counties’ promotion favourites, and this defeat landed at the ruthless leaders.

A fortnight after coming unstuck at home to secondplaced Sherborne, Swanage and Wareham, perched at the summit after seven wins from seven, beat Matt Pallas’s Salisbury 28-15.

For the visitors, the game followed a familiar pattern of making a poor start and were punished by conceding four giveaway tries, all of which were converted.

A solitary penalty from Tom Pottage was the only reward Salisbury gleaned from the first half, the score at the interval being 28-3.

During half-time, Liam Gilbert pulled the team together and instilled them with some focus as Salisbury upped the ante in the second half.

During the first 10 minutes, Salisbury were reduced to 14 when Ian Miller was yellow carded, harshly, for a deliberate knock-on but his teammates managed to survive the Swans’ intense pressure.

The momentum of the match had turned and Salisbury, with the addition of subs Luke Esnouf and Richard West, added some muscle power to exert further pressure on the home pack.

Continuous pressure from the Castle Road outfit eventually paid off when Patrick Dickson went over close to the line to reduce the scoreline to 28-8.

Dominance in the forwards continued to put Swans on the back foot and close to full-time Jon Goldsmith went in under the posts to score. This was easily converted by Gilbert as the game stopped at 28-15.

Before the eagerly-anticipated reverse fixture where Salisbury will look to avenge the defeat, they have a break from the league as they host Royal Wootton Bassett in the Dorset & Wilts Cup on Saturday (2.30pm).