SWINDON St George captain Connor Tomley says Saturday’s 26-18 success over Bath was a good yardstick for the season ahead as they began the new West of England Pool A campaign in positive fashion.

After completing a comprehensive double over Bath last year, Tomley says he and his teammates were guilty of being over-confident ahead of the game.

The fixture itself was hard-fought, as Sam Collins, Stu Hannah, Florin Palcau, Todd Johnson all crossed the line, while Tomley and Palcau added conversions to make it 20-6 at the break.

In the second half, Bath registered a try to close the gap before Josh Williams responded. Bath then hit back to make it 24-18 as the game began to get uncomfortably close for St George.

However, Sam Williams was on hand to score a penalty late on to seal the six-point win for Ben Whincup’s players.

“Bath were a young team and they were a little bit on the physical side. I just think we were a little bit over-confident,” said captain Tomley, who admits competition for places is stronger than ever after an influx of new arrivals.

“Obviously last year we had two very convincing wins over them, and this year it was surprising to see that they turned up.

“Hopefully that will have knocked us down a peg or two before the game against Bristol at the weekend.

“This year I’d say we are a bit more physical than what we were last year, and we have a few new signings, which has bolstered us a little bit.

“Last year you could waltz in and not really have to train, but this year everyone is training and everyone is committing.

“As a result, the chemistry on the pitch is different to last year too, and the new signings have fitted in really well.

“We get boys from Swindon, Supermarine, Swindon College Old Boys and others. Ben (Whincup) is a university coach, so we have a few players down from there too.

“It’s good. St George are becoming a bigger name, we even have a few players from Oxford who come down.

“The target before the season was to push for promotion, so now we need to show that we can do it so hopefully the weekend was a bit of an eye opener for us.”