SWINDON St George endured another tough weekend as they suffered a 66-22 defeat at Bristol Sonics.

St George were hampered by the latest in a string of injuries that have blighted the first stage of their season.

Ashley Perry, who scored St George’s only try of the first half, was taken to hospital with the game 25 minutes old with what later was confirmed to be a neck fracture.

Swindon were 32-6 down at half-time, but it was St George who came out the stronger in the early skirmishes of the second period.

The resistance did not last however, the Sonics re-establishing their domination to end up winners by 44 points.

Second half St George tries came from Connor Tomley and a brace from Bruce Vuetanatotoka, the Fijian full-back also landing three of his four goal opportunities to end up with a top scoring 14 points.

St George team manager Jakob Kauusberg did not want to cite the injury as the cause for the defeat, instead choosing to see his side as a work in progress.

“We weren’t looking too great before the injury, but the injury put us off,” he said.

“We’ve got quite a few new players together and we need to do a bit more team bonding.

“We’ve got to work on our strategy and tactics. We’ve got a four-week period now without a game.

“We’re going to have a look inside ourselves, think about what we want to achieve and how we’re going to go about doing it.

“We’ve always said that last season, this season, next season and the season after that will be building phases.

“We’re looking at the long-term. We have a youth team now and we’ve got a better home club base to work from. We’re laying the foundations now.”

Perry’s neck injury rules him out for the rest of the season and adds to St George’s injury woes, yet Kauusberg is hopeful the team’s four-week break from action will provide the opportunity to rest up the remaining fit players.

“We’re not going to be adding any new players at the moment, we’re going to focusing on what we’ve got,” he added.

“The guys who are injured are out now, but hopefully George Cowley, the club captain, will be back.

“We might start sponsoring a ward at Great Western Hospital because we’ve got about four guys in there at the moment.”