Frome RFC travelled to local rivals Trowbridge RFC on Saturday looking to gain their first win of the season in South West 1 East.

Frome started strongly but could not convert possession into points. It was the home side who were on the scoreboard first, following a penalty scored first when Frome transgressed in the midfield and Trowbridge duly converted the penalty.

Despite having a fair proportion of the ball, Trowbridge showed their experience and pounced on any mistake from the visitors, punishing them with four converted tries before half time.

Frome regrouped at half time and started strongly with the Forwards lead by Geoff Taylor carrying strongly.

From a five metre Scrum, Captain Alex Mallon picked up and attacked the line, breaking through two would be tacklers to dot down for Frome's only points of the day, the conversion going just wide.

The remainder of the second half was fiercely contested and Frome managed to keep the home side from scoring until the 70th minute when the Trowbridge forwards combined to score from close range.

FT: Trowbridge RFC 36 - 5 Frome RFC

Frome RFC Head, Toby Culff commented "Even though they were losses, we actually garnered quite a lot of encouragement and confidence from our first two fixtures against Marlborough and Oxford Quins. We felt completely sure of our place at this level and our ability to compete. Last week's loss to Sherborne, on the other hand, was completely sapping. I think it left us feeling as bad about our rugby as we've felt in years. Rebounding from a performance of that nature was never going to be a quick job - it really knocked us back to square one - so the aspirations for this week were very modest and simple. We just wanted to enjoy our rugby again and to reconnect as a group.

"We wanted to play some Frome rugby. This was by no means a perfect performance, as the score line very clearly indicates, but it served its purpose. We've reset, changed our outlook, and we're back in a position from which we can build. We know what we wanted from the game and we achieved the vast majority of it. Credit to the players for their perseverance and spirit, to the coaches for their hard work last week, and to the supporters who actually understood what yesterday was about."

Frome RFC look forward to welcoming Windsor RFC to The Lane on Saturday and will be looking to gain their first win.

Frome RFC 1st XV | 1.Taylor 2.King 3.G.Benstead | 4.Howard | 5.James | 6.Hastie | 7.Toten | 8.Mallon (c) | 9.J.Benstead | 10.Westlake | 11.Rusz | 12.Frost | 13.White | 14.Sully | 15.D.Thompson | 16.Chalmers | 17.Randall | 18.C.Thompson