TWO of Southern Counties South’s top promotion candidates, bidding for division glory, went head-to-head at Castle Road.

Salisbury RFC’s biggest test came on Saturday when they hosted Sherborne, both sides entering the fixture undefeated and on the back of recent scoring sprees.

With each side pumped for the occasion, it was Sherborne who trickled over the line with a 17-26 victory to jump into second place.

Early on in the clash, Sherborne were gifted a try following an interception pass just on halfway and ran in under the posts for a try which was easily converted to give the visiting team a seven nil head start.

Onwards followed a period where Sherborne consistently slowed the play down, leading Salisbury to be frustrated but they eventually overcame the sticky start when Tom Ronabaldo went over for the first Salisbury try, but Liam Gilbert failed to convert.

The game continued to ebb and flow and poor handling from Salisbury and some late pressure from Sherborne left the score at 5-7. The large crowd, most of whom experienced a satisfactory VIP lunch, became more vociferous as they anticipated a strong Salisbury second half.

Salisbury started with some intent and from a long period of possession when Salisbury could have scored twice, Oli Davies eventually went over to score with the extras added by Liam Gilbert.

The green and white army maintained pressure in the early second half phases, with the eventual reward of another try to Ronabaldo, and Salisbury seemed to be in the ascendancy 17-7 ahead.

But then in a game-changing five minutes, Sherborne ran two carbon copy tries into the corners.

Breakaways close to the halfway line and missed tackles led to 12 points being added to the Sherborne score to put them ahead by two points.

Salisbury mounted the pressure on their opposition but, instead, a further seven points from the visitors ensured victory.

Meanwhile, the seconds are top of their division after a superb 36-9 win over Wimborne thirds, while the thirds lost away 17-5 at Dorset Dockers seconds.