IN THE wake of their 33-13 victory over Abingdon in the Southern Counties Senior Vase final, Swindon College Old Boys head of rugby Mark Lea believes the cup run is galvanising the whole club.

Old Boys’ latest cup victory was no procession. Lea’s side had to pick themselves off the floor, by the 26th minute they had given up a 10-point lead to their Oxfordshire hosts.

The Swindon side rallied and a rapid pair of converted tries from Tucker Blinkhorn and Charlie Grabe gave them the ascendancy and a further score from Stuart Knight gave them a 19-10 lead at the half.

Knight furthered the lead just after the break with Grabe adding the extras.

By this point the College pack were rampant at the set piece, setting the base for the game-sealing try. Starting with a defensive line-out in their own 22, the upfield push came to Jamie Park to finish.

Abingdon added a conciliation score but College were out of sight.

Lea was delighted with his side’s perseverance as they came through Abingdon’s early spell of pressure.

“It’s another great day,” he said. “We made hard work of the first 20 minutes but credit should go to Abingdon there who won the early physical battle.

“Our own pack are used to getting the upper hand in most games and the way Abingdon fronted up gave us a bit of a wakeup call. We can only play the running rugby if we win the contact areas so we will continue to focus on that part of our game in preparation.

“The cup run is doing more than we could have imagined. The players are more motivated to train, it has brought them together as a team and it is starting to attract players from other teams to SCOB.”

Lea even admitted to being a little giddy at the thought of a Twickenham final, now only two wins away.

“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about Twickenham, however we have a top of the table clash against Reading Abbey, the only side to beat us this season, and two very tough rounds before then.

“So we really must keep both feet on the ground and focus only on the next game.

The Nationwide-based side now go on to face Devon outfit Withycombe at home in the regional round. Should they win they will face off with a team from London or the south east for a place in the Twickenham showpiece.