SEAN Millwaters lamented that Supermarine were unable to overcome the burden of being without a raft of influential players as they were mauled at Melksham last weekend.

Marine got the better of their county rivals when they met in Swindon earlier this season, Millwaters’ men winning 37-13, but Saturday’s return fixture played out on the contrary as promotion-chasing Melksham romped to a 49-13 triumph.

Marine were without the likes of second-rower John Mason, who has recently left to join Swindon, along with number eight Pete Kewell and Connor Ward, and Millwaters surmised that his side simply couldn’t cope without them.

“I was without eight first-team players and that’s not to say that the guys that came in didn’t play well, because they did, but we were missing a lot of influential players,” said the Marine head coach.

“It was our first game without John Mason, who has been told that he has to play level-six rugby to get into the RAF side, so he joined Swindon, and we also had no Pete Kewell or Connor Ward.

"Those lads are all 6ft 4in and we were also without out tighthead prop, Ryan Thompson, so that’s half our pack.

“I was surprised by how heavy (the defeat) was but we always knew that it was going to be a tall order going to Melksham, who are playing well.”

The hosts led 29-8 at half-time, Stuart Doughty crossing the line and Sean Rees kicking a penalty for Marine, whilst Mike Baptiste also scored a try as Melksham pressed the issue home.

Millwaters’ men are next in action on March 19 when they host Minety during a President’s Day event.

Elsewhere, Swindon College Old Boys failed to register for the third weekend in a row as they went down 17-0 at Stow-on-the-Wold in Southern Counties North.

The Pipers Way side remain bottom of the table, four points adrift of second-from-bottom Drifters with four matches of the season remaining.