THREE players made their Royal Wootton Bassett first-team debuts on Saturday against Trowbridge, and manager Alan Low was therefore understandably thrilled to watch his side register a devastating 17-50 win at Paxcroft.

Fresh from his Corsham move, hooker Scott Parry filled the boots of missing players Phil Bardwell and Jordan Rye comfortably – despite picking up a yellow card in the opening two minutes of Saturday’s game.

Ex Henley Hawks back row George Lane, who has recently moved to the area, also appeared in black for the first time while Romu Ratudina was promoted from the second team to cover for star youngsters Ethan Stock and Maikeli Volavola – who were away on south-west U18s duty.

Ratudina’s performance in particular caught Low’s eye.

The winger notched a brace on debut to complement Troy Cusack, Sam Davies and Chris Patterson’s earlier tries while Connor Tomley, Alex Plows and Joe Pettit later touched down too.

Bassett’s timely win kept them second in South West One (East) after leaders Old Centralians made light work of their trip to Buckingham.

Low said: “We had a lot of disruption with unavailability, but the boys still performed extremely well in tough weather conditions.

“Although it didn’t rain, it was blowing a storm.

“Overall, there were definitely areas to work on because we felt we left several scores out on the pitch at Trowbridge.

“But, to come away with a result by the score line we achieved is fantastic.”

Though thrilled by Bassett’s win, Low confirmed that both Bardwell and Rye will miss the remainder of the season because of injury.

Bardwell requires an operation on the same shoulder he aggravated last season because of a fresh injury.

Rye meanwhile has damaged his medial collateral ligament, and will be out of action until May.

Witnessing Bassett spread points across the team therefore came as a slight consolation for Low.

He added: “There was a widespread number of points across the team, but there is still accuracy to sharpen up on this week (against Wimborne).

“We expect the weather to be very similar. But given we fielded such a different squad, I was very pleased.”

Swindon and Swindon College Old Boys were without a game this weekend in Southern Counties South.