Swindon coach pleased with fight back (From Swindon Advertiser)

Swindon coach pleased with fight back

6:00am Wednesday 13th February 2013 in Rugby By Andy Warren

SWINDON coach Neil Loader was relieved to see his side come back from 10-0 down to record a 48-15 victory away at bottom club Swanage & Wareham.

The home side went into an early 10-0 win thanks to a penalty and a freak try, but Swindon managed to claw their way back into the contest and levelled things up at 10-10 at the break thanks to an Adam Westall penalty and a converted try from Cameron Brown.

From then on Swindon took control and made South West 1 East’s bottom club pay, as first Ben Saville and then Tom Mannion, Sam Williams, Sam Wells, Westall and Dan McCarthy all scored tries to seal a comfortable win.

Loader was ultimately pleased with the result, but wasn’t always convinced it was going to come.

“We were expecting tough weather conditions, but it was quite kind to us and it was a good day for running rugby which is how we like to play,” he said.

“I suppose we were confident, but not too confident, and we knew it was going to be a hard game.

“After the start they had it was beginning to look like one of those days for us, even though we were stronger, dominant in the set-piece, and played the better more fluid rugby.

“It looked as if it was going to get away from us, but we managed to pull it back before half-time, and then from point I thought it was going to be our day instead.

“We wanted to keep our foot on the gas, and the boys got out the blocks in the second half and used the slight slope to our advantage.

“After that we cut loose, and we got our tails up and played well. It’s a lot easier to play our style of rugby when you are confident, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Loader was full of praise for his pack of forwards, whose dominant display provided a platform for the devastating group of backs he has at his disposal.

“The forwards were absolutely outstanding, and they deserve a lot of credit for the win,” he said.

“With all due respect to the players who have played for Swindon over the last few years, I have to say the group of three-quarters we have at the club now is outstanding.

“We have quality all over the back line, and we spoke about if the forwards could give us enough go forward ball, we would win.

“To their credit they absolutely did that, and there was some fantastic midfield organisation which helped us play some fantastic flowing rugby they couldn’t contain.”