SUPERMARINE edged their way to a surprise 22-21 victory over Cooper-Avon Tyres in Saturday's Dorset & Wilts Division One match at South Marston.

The Swindon side showed little respect to their higher-placed visitors but both teams were unable to get out of first gear in the early stages.

The Melksham side eventually broke the deadlock midway through the first half when their centre broke through the Marine defence and waltzed over for a try, which was converted.

Supermarine seemed to drift further away from the game and Cooper-Avon pounced for a second try through their full-back to take a healthy 12-0 lead

The home side finally stepped up a gear and strong running from the back row began to make dents in the opposition defence.

Marine lost influential openside flanker James Titcombe with a facial injury which later required hospital treatment and he was replaced by Kev Ashman.

The Swindon outfit still looked the more threatening and a bullocking run from Tim Gallimore led to Mark Sheppard scoring in the corner.

Cooper-Avon atacked the Marine line from the kick-off, and with a three-man overlap they tried to exploit the blindside wing.

Darren Milne, though, intercepted a wild pass and ran unopposed to score under the posts. He also converted his own try and that levelled the scores at 12-12.

The pace of the game slowed again and Cooper-Avon slotted a penalty to take a 15-12 lead into the half-time break.

With the wind at their backs in the second half, Marine pinned the visitors in their own half for long spells.

From a breakout, however, Cooper-Avon slotted another penalty to edge further ahead.

In the final 10 minutes, however, Supermarine threw everything at the Melksham outfit.

Steve Packer replaced the newly recruited Paul Smith in midfield and he made an instant impact by making a break and creating space for Sheppard to grab his second try of the game.

This went unconverted, and with Cooper-Avon notching another penalty, that left Supermarine trailing by four points and with just five minutes remaining.

From a scrum five, man-of-the-match Gallimore was held over the line and Cooper-Avon kicked to touch.

Marine's throw to Gallimore was good and in the ensuing forward drive, second row Richard Dodd pushed his way over and score the winning try in the last play of the game.