THE ADAPTABILITY of his squad was the most pleasing aspect for Royal Wootton Bassett head coach Alan Low as his troops toiled to a 20-15 win over bottom side Stratford Upon Avon last weekend.

Low felt his side underestimated their hosts’ capabilities but considering very few of his players were in their natural positions, the Bassett chief said he was just pleased to have picked up another vital win in their outside quest for promotion.

The Wiltshire outfit have moved up to fourth, but remain four points behind second-placed Old Centralians, with 12 wins from their opening 16 fixtures.

Since their three consecutive defeats in December, Bassett have started 2019 with two wins although Low admitted the away win at Stratford was far from a vintage performance.

He said: “The most pleasing thing was the way the guys stuck to their task.

“We had a lot of players playing out of position in the back five and in the pack we only had two players in their regular positions, so the adaptability of the squad – certainly up front – was good.

“We left three or four scores out on the pitch, which we’re a little bit disappointed about, but to go up to Stratford and get a result against a team who had a reasonable result against Oxford Harlequins is good.

“Stratford are a much-improved side to where they were before Christmas.

“They’ve already recruited a few in their preparations for next year and they offered a bit more than what we were expecting, but we were happy with our game in the end.”

Low said the underwhelming Christmas period showed where his side are at, but once he is able to welcome back several first-team players from injury, results will continue to pick up.

Bassett brought three new players up to Stratford in an attempt to slowly bring their youth players through and Low felt his debutants did themselves no harm in an effort to pick up more first-team appearances.

He said: “It was another messy performance, but it was good in the sense that some new guys who went up and had a run around.

“We blooded three new players with the first team and all of them went really well, so it’s good for them to travel and get that experience at that level.

“We just needed to tidy up some elements of our game and keep our tempo high, which was where we came unstuck a little bit.

“Although it wasn’t the best performance, with what we had available and some guys playing out of position, I think we did really well.

“Once we get a few of the more experienced guys back, hopefully a bit more consistency will come back into our game.

Elsewhere in South West One East, Swindon stretched their winless run to three games as they went down 34-26 at home to Oxford Harlequins to remain second from bottom in the table.

Swindon College Old Boys were beaten in their latest Southern Counties South fixture, going down 27-9 away at Grove, while Supermarine remain at the foot of the Dorset & Wilts One North table without a win to their name this season following a heavy 50-0 loss away at Minety at the weekend.