SWINDON were blown off the pitch as they fell to a fourth defeat on the bounce with a 35-22 defeat away to local rivals Trowbridge.

In a game where the players had to endure rain, snow and hail, Swindon’s slow start saw them give up a big deficit, and despite going close, they were ultimatelyunable to complete the comeback.

The hosts took the lead through Shia Bonnick after twenty minutes, with Lloyd Davis getting the conversion.

Swindon conceded a penalty straight from the re-start to give Davis the chance to further extend the lead with the wind in the home sides favour.

Adam Westall pulled a try back for the visitors but scores from James Davies and Dan Smith, with Dan Phillips in the sin-bin, gave Trowbridge a 20 point advantage going into the break.

Swindon started the second half strongly with Connall Knott and Adam Dobie both going over the white-wash to pull the score back to within five points.

But with ten minutes to go Davis was successful with a penalty, before Davies went over for his second of the afternoon to wrap up the result.

“We went in at half time 27-7 down and it was a large margin to pull back in the second half,” said Westall after the game.

“I think we got it back to 22-27 but we were forcing it at the end because we were chasing the game.

“The most freakish weather come over us, we had sideways hail come in and it made it very wet and it was windy and it limited our attack.

“We couldn’t move the ball around like we wanted to in the first 20 minutes.

“We were into quite a strong wind in the first half and the three tries they scored were totally gifted to them by us, I don’t think they really created much.

“We conceded a try which I never probably think you’ll see again as long as I play rugby.

“We had a five metre scrum on their try-line and we ended up underneath our sticks after the next play, which is not good enough and there was the element of luck there that wasn’t with us.

“It was very disappointing and as a squad we were probably to look that one but it is just one of those things.”

Swindon defeat was Swindon’s fourth consecutive in the South West One East division for the first time this season.

The run has seen the Greenbridge Road side lose pace with the top three and Westall has said the team need to dig deep to turn their form on its head.

“It has started to become a bit of a monkey and it doesn’t get any easier,” added the skipper.

“We have to get back on the saddle again this week and crack on with it at home next weekend against Windsor.”