A NIGHTMARE second half saw Swindon slide to a 48-10 defeat at Witney in Southern Counties North on Saturday.

In howling winds, visitors Swindon went into the break 5-3 ahead but Witney racked up 45 points in a rampant second half performance, to secure an emphatic win.

Coach Neil Loader believes the scoreline was an unfair reflection of the afternoon’s events and that his Swindon side, but for a few casual errors, matched their hosts for large periods of the game.

“Witney were obviously a good side,” he said.

“In the second half their pressure told. We weren’t able to keep them out and it was a really scrappy and very ugly game of rugby in the second half.

“They’ve created three good tries but the rest have come from picking off the rubbish and scraps that we’ve given out through mistakes.”

Loader lamented his squad’s tendencies to drift away from their gameplans - a key factor in their steady deterioration in the second period.

“When we stick to our systems we are a good side and we’re hard to break down,” he said.

“We have got teams into situations where we should be able to pick them off.

“But in defence we probably weren’t taking responsibility. We weren’t communicating who had got the ball carrier and who had got inside and outside.

“Rugby’s about being aggressive but it’s also about being smart and knowing when to do the right things.

“We weren’t smart enough to get ourselves out of trouble.”

Swindon’s boss was far from disappointed from the overall display, however, even if the result left something to be desired.

“The performance wasn’t that bad at all,” he said.

“We let ourselves down for a 10 or 15 minutes period. But we were against the side who are top of the table - they were very well drilled.

“We kept it pretty tight, but we didn’t take our opportunities.”

Loader conceded that Witney were the better side on the day, but refused to accept that his team deserved the hiding.

“The result does flatter them somewhat,” he said.

“I think a score of 30-15 would have been a much fairer reflection.

“It’s all a learning process for us. We were disrupted again by late drop-outs, which I’m not using as an excuse, but I am not completely disappointed with the game.

“I don’t like to lose, but we weren’t that bad.

“We’ve just got to learn to apply ourselves for 80 minutes.”

Elsewhere, Wootton Bassett went down to a 30-8 defeat at Trowbridge on Saturday.

The result leaves the Stoneover Lane outfit still searching for their first win this season.

Bassett put up a good showing against their mid-table hosts but were eventually subjected to defeat for the 11th time in 11 outings.

Dave Floyd’s side have a crunch game with second bottom Reading Abbey in a fortnight.

FRUSTRATED Cirencester had three tries disallowed as they lost 8-3 at home to Old Colstonians at the weekend.

The result meant Ciren were knocked off the top of the Gloucester Premier by their visiting rivals, who took their place at the summit.

The hosts made inroads into the Colstonians defence early on with strong running from the forwards and the centre partnership Crouch and Brierley.

After James Fisher missed a penalty chance, much of the first half was played in the middle of the pitch.

Colstonians scored the only try of the game from a rare foray forward as the visiting winger touched down out wide after the defence was too slow to close down.

Shortly after, Ciren scrum half Parry crossed the try line, only for the referee to disallow the score.

In the second half, playing down the slope and into the wind, Ciren made ground with a series of short bursts.

But far too often the attacks came to a halt with a mistake, enabling the Colstonians defence to clear with deep kicks.

A series of five penalties close to the Colstonians try line ended with Fisher slotting a penalty, to reduce the advantage to 5-3 going into the final quarter.

Colstonians hit back with a penalty of their own to make it 8-3 before Ciren had two tries disallowed, the second from Hammond, before the final whistle.

Meanwhile, Cirencester 2nds were on the end of a 34-5 defeat at Dursley in foul weather conditions.

Their misery was compounded by the loss of fly half Hammond to a serious shoulder injury.

Elsewhere, a Cirencester 3rd string side ground out at home victory against Drybrook at the Whiteway.

Cirencester Under 16s fought their way to a well-deserved 12-7 win against a strong Bath side.