Salisbury defeat Chippenham in Castle Road thriller

Salisbury’s Castle Road supporters were treated to a thrilling display by two teams parading their whole range of attacking skills. Salisbury shaded Wiltshire rivals Chippenham 40:31 in a match that echoed the previous week’s England v Scotland game. A blistering start saw Christian Metson in his 100th appearance for the 1st XV spring through a gap, but he just couldn’t hold onto the pass to score under the posts. Within 60 seconds a flowing Chippenham move saw right wing Daw scorch over and with the conversion take a 7:0 lead. But the next 25 minutes belonged to the home team. Multi-phase play and some excellent handling saw Metson atone, very quickly followed over the line by David Tonge and Mike Dauwalder. With all tries converted by Rory MacTaggart, Salisbury had moved out to a 21:7 lead and when Joe Tully finished off another excellent series of attacks, well converted by MacTaggart, the home side seemed to be building an unassailable lead. But nobody had told Chippenham who were causing the Salisbury defence all manner of problems when they managed to win clean possession, scoring 3 tries in rapid succession to secure their own bonus point before half-time which finished 28:24. Salisbury needed to tighten up and deny Chippenham the oxygen of possession, but the away team were first onto the scoreboard with another fine try and the home support had to rub their eyes when the scoreboard showed Chippenham had taken the lead. But with the replacements coming on, new boy Callum Grant and veteran prop Richard West bolstered the scrum and Salisbury began to regain control of the game pinning Chippenham into their own half with a combination of forward muscle, silky running and clever kicking. Tonge eventually profited, converted by MacTaggart, followed almost immediately by skipper Josh Green, to take the score out to 40:31 with 15 minutes to play. Chippenham threw everything at Salisbury, but when Green, playing out of position in the centre, saved a certain try with a last ditch tackle, the forwards were able to dominate the final minutes and see Salisbury home after an excellent afternoon’s entertainment.