HEAD coach Colin Branagh thinks that the initial indications look promising for the Swindon Storm after they maintained their 100 per cent early-season record with victory on the road at Torbay Trojans last weekend.

The Storm, who thrashed the Jurassic Coast Raptors in their opening match of the campaign, ran out 25-9 winners in Devon, with Luke McEnroe successfully adding an extra point to his own touchdown and Joe Soden getting on the end of a Greg Roscow pass in the end zone, with McEnroe again successful with the boot.

After a lung-busting run, McEnroe stumbled at the one-yard line and Aaron Benn bundled over for his first Storm touchdown, with Luke Cavanagh completing a two-point conversion, and a Reece Kinnett field goal capped the visitors’ haul.

With two wins from two matches, Swindon top the early BAFA National League SFC 2 West standings and Branagh was pleased with what he saw at Torbay.

“Torbay were a lot better than we were led to believe and I think they’d had a bit of a boost because they were playing at a new ground,” said the Storm chief.

“I think that we played very well.

“We were missing Victor Ofoe (who scored three touchdowns in the Storm’s 41-0 victory over Jurassic Coast on April 10) but other players stepped up.

“We were 14-3 up and then they got themselves a touchdown, so it was a bit of a defensive effort for a while after that but in the end, we got a very good win.

“The only downside was losing Alex Marshall to quite a bad set of injuries – in the third quarter, he dislocated his elbow and cracked his kneecap as well, so we’ll be without him for a few games and hopefully, we can welcome him back later in the season.”

The Storm’s next fixture is a home clash with the Cornish Sharks at Supermarine Rugby Club and although Branagh is expecting some needle on the pitch, he says that things will be very different off it.

The Swindon coach said: “There’s a bit of a rivalry there and no love lost between the teams.

“But their coach, Brian Smallworth, is someone that I’ve known for 32 years and we’re good friends, so that will be an interesting one.”