MALMESBURY began Saturday's game desperate to remain the top Wiltshire team in the divison while Swindon were playing for pride.

Malmesbury missed a scoring opportunity in the first five minutes when Kris Arens threw a long pass to Stuart Wright to open up the Swindon defence.

Skipper Paul Hutton took the ball to within five metres of the visitors' line but he was bundled into touch.

Swindon took the attack to the home side and full back Whitmore took the ball through the home side's defence on the right, and scored under the posts, giving Hopkins a straight forward conversion.

Dowling pushed the visitors score further ahead with a try which Hopkins failed to convert, though he kicked a penalty goal after 25 minutes to give the visitors a 15-0 lead.

Malmesbury replied with a break and a long run from David Worker, who scored just to the right of the visitors' posts, and converted the try himself.

Malmesbury attacked again, and Rob Gow would have scored, except for a try-saving tackle by Steve Carr.

Malmesbury Replaced Tom Neale with Will Davies and Chris Hunt with Simon Sharp at half time, and proceeded to attack with the slope in their favour.

The match was much more even in the second half, with the Malmesbury scrum managing to put pressure on the visitors, but Hopkins' defensive kicking bore his teammates out, and the home side were pushed back to their own line on several occasions.

Towards the end of the half, Tom Neale replaced Huw Jones when the latter cut his nose.

Hopkins' final deed was to kick a penalty goal after a Malmesbury player had dived over the top of a ruck.

Malmesbury play their league match at Minety on Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm.