Greenwood: St George effort was Admir-able (From Swindon Advertiser)

Greenwood: St George effort was Admir-able

10:30am Thursday 11th June 2009 in

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COACH Neil Greenwood remained upbeat despite witnessing his Swindon St George side lose 46-13 in their top-of-the-table clash at Greenwich Admirals.

A Dragonslayers outfit missing six first team players were soundly beaten in London, but Greenwood believes the RLC London and South Division title is still a possibility.

“I’m proud of the team’s performance,” said Greenwood.

“We competed with a top team with a squad missing some good players.

”The Greenwich coach said this was their toughest game and a lot closer than the score suggests. I believe we will make the play-offs.

“When we get our full strength team on the pitch, Swindon St George can win this league.”

Defences were on top early on at the weekend as neither team was able to break through the other side’s aggressive tackling.

On 19 minutes Greenwich broke the deadlock as they scored a converted try.

Another try for the home side followed six minutes later as they extended their advantage to 12-0.

Swindon hit back when Ashley Brown collected Ross Saville’s kick and shrugged off a tackle, before scoring under the posts for an unconverted try.

Greenwich touched down again before the interval, before Swindon’s Ben Saville kicked a drop goal on the stroke of half time to leave the visitors 18-7 behind.

A comeback looked a possibility after the resumption when Greg O’Brien’s break and Mike Thompson’s offload allowed Jim Roden to score under the posts. Ross Saville converted.

Swindon continued to push forward but after an hour they had run themselves into the ground.

Greenwich, unlike Swindon, had a full squad of 20 players, and were able to rotate and rest.

This helped them score 28 unanswered points as they took advantage of their visitors’ exhaustion.

The result meant Dragonslayers now lie second in the league, two points behind leaders Greenwich at the half way stage of the season.