SWINDON College Old Boys may have gone down 63-5 at Aylesbury on Saturday but they were happy with the way their forwards stood up against the third-placed side.

Bottom of the league Old Boys were always struggling in a game where they found themselves 9-0 down following three early penalties. Their hosts had only played a couple of times since Christmas but the rustiness that Old Boys were hoping to take advantage of was not apaprent. Aylesbury regularly broke over Old Boys’ tryline after their first score in the 15th minute.

It wasn’t until the second half that Old Boys were able to notch their only score, Dan Cooper running onto a Gareth Davis chip afer veteran Steve Offord won a turnover.

However, despite the scoreline, Old Boys chairman Martin Peaple took some pride from how his side’s forwards refused to buckle against a strong Aylesbury outfit.

“We were by no means disgraced. The 63-5 scoreline looks terrible but to be honest it wasn’t as bad as all that.,” he said.

“We competed well in the forwards and were strong, pushing them around a bit.

“We have depth within that area. Aylesbury pride themselves on their pack play and we held our own and stole a couple balls against the head.”

Peaple had to admit, though, that his side’s backs were proving to be a problem area and one of the major differences between the sides.

“We’ve had to mix and match in the backs. We’ve got no strength in depth at there, we struggle get space.,” he said.

“We competed on the whole but they’re a good Southern Counties team, and we’re still trying to get to that level.

“They closed us down really quick, we have a couple of quick players, Charlie Davey and Dan Cooper, but they couldn’t get the space.”

Old Boys have failed to win a game all season but Peaple says his side were not disheartened by their latest loss.

“Anybody looking at the will think they got trounced, it’s quite a big scoreline, it’s not like they were scoring at every opportunity,” he said. “Our heads didn’t go down at any point. Take nothing away from them, they’re a very good side.”

“Their number eight stood out. He was the place kicker and playmaker, he probably only missed one kick all afternoon.”