MALMESBURY had hardly formed up when the home side scored their first try but Gavin Pratt failed to make good his extra two points by bouncing his conversion off the far upright.

Malmesbury skipper Paul Hutton made up the score after eight minutes with a try along the left wing, which Kris Arens failed to convert.

Four minutes later Warminster took the lead again when Clark outran the Malmesbury defence, fielded his own kick ahead and scored a well taken try.

This time Pratt was on target and Warminster led 12-5.

Malmesbury then made a positional change, moving Stuart Wright to full-back, Chris Hunt from number 15 to the right wing, and Justin King to inside centre.

After 25 minutes, Kris Arens kicked a penalty goal, when the home side's pack did not retire quickly enough from a previous infringement, and Malmesbury took the lead when a maul developed on the right hand side of the field. Arens took the ball blind and scored in the corner.

He missed the conversion, but converted Huw Jones' try five minutes later, to make the half-time score 12-20 in favour of the visitors.

Warminster attacked from the start of the second half and Malmesbury were pressed very hard at this stage of the game and their defence held.

Counter attacking Chris Hunt was forced into touch on the line, and Malmesbury were pushed back from the Warminster line at several scrums

Dave Coleman then intercepted a Malmesbury pass and scored the home side's third try, which Pratt converted.

The game was now on a knife edge, and Malmesbury finally gave the result away by presenting Pratt with two easily kickable penalties.

Malmesbury entertain Swindon thirds at The Worthies on April 16 with kick off at 3pm.