TWO disallowed tries caused frustration for Salisbury RFC as they lost 16-11 to Cornish outfit Launceston in National League 3 South West.

Until the final ten minutes had arrived at Polson Bridge, where controversy struck, it was a closely-contested battle.

Robbie Keith had notched up a penalty as Salisbury trailed 6-3 at the interval.

After the break, both sides exchanged penalties before Launceston produced the best move of the game to score, adding the conversion.

Green and Whites responded and Rob Larcombe cut a sublime line to break the defence but the pass was judged forward. Then came the last ten minutes.

At 16-6, the visitors launched waves of attacks and, when they thought they had scored, the referee was unsighted and was unable to award it.

The city side regrouped and drove back at the hosts, this time front row debutant Dan Bennett grounded for a score to reduce the deficit to five points.

Buoyed by the try, Neil Loader's men rallied on and Matt Dawson emerged from a pile of bodies to celebrate a score close to the posts, but the matchday official, again, disallowed it.

Subsequently, that was the last piece of action as Launceston, demoted last season from National 2, hung on for their first home victory in over a season.

Head coach Loader said: "The promising thing, for me, is that we are not being completely outplayed, we are competing well, and if those two tries had been allowed we would have come away with a win."

"I am encouraged, we will get better and stay competitive in this league.”

Elsewhere, Salisbury United lost to Newbury 47-31, the under 17s won at Swanage and Wareham 34-12 and the under 14s ran out 32-0 victors at Sherborne.