It's the final countdown (From Swindon Advertiser)

It's the final countdown

8:00am Friday 23rd April 2010 in

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SWINDON College Old Boys travel to Warminster tomorrow to face East Dorset in the final of the Dorset & Wilts 1st XV Plate, and manager Martin Peaple hopes the fixture will provide the fairytale finish to an impressive season.

Old Boys recently completed their league campaign in the Berks/Bucks and Oxon Premier with three consecutive wins, sealing third spot in the process. And Peaple believes the chance to claim silverware is too good to miss.

“It would be a really good reward for the lads after all their hard work during a long season,” he said.

“To come third in the league was a terrific result but it would seem that there’s not a great deal to show for it, whereas with the Plate there is a good opportunity there to take home a medal.”

Whilst a large portion of the sporting community have lamented the affect of the ash cloud generated by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano’s eruption last week, Peaple has a soft spot for Iceland’s most well-publicised landmark of recent times, after it ensured the availability of two of his players for the match.

“James Murray was going to be flying to Vegas, but he can’t travel any more, and we’re waiting on Matt McKee who was supposed to be going to Latvia this weekend,” said the Old Boys boss.

“Obviously it is a boost to have them there in spite of the situation, and we are allowed to field 22 players so a number of the development squad can be involved.”

Sean O’Rourke will be absent for the clash, but Peaple expects to have a full-strength side available to him otherwise, and claimed that his charges would not be concerned by the possibility of hot playing conditions.

“We played last week against Phoenix on a very warm day and we did well, I think sometimes the heat benefits us and the way we like to play,” he said.

“I don’t know what the Warminster pitch will be like and whether it is conducive to running rugby or forward play, but whatever it is we will give it our best shot.”

East Dorset are relative strangers to Old Boys, with the two sides having rarely faced each other in recent years, but Peaple insists that will not work against his team.

“East Dorset are an unknown quantity, we haven’t played them very frequently, only once in 10 years, but that doesn’t matter,” he said.

“We will still play how we like to play and hopefully get the result we want.”