RUGBY: It's tough at the top for College Old Boys (From Swindon Advertiser)

RUGBY: It's tough at the top for College Old Boys

8:00am Friday 2nd December 2011 in Rugby By Andy Warren

SWINDON College Old Boys manager Martin Peaple is bracing himself for a tough two weeks as his side prepares to travel to the Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premier’s top two clubs on consecutive weekends.

Old Boys travel to second placed Thatcham tomorrow before visiting league leaders Drifters the following week, but Peaple is confident of taking something from the two tough trips.

“If we could come away with a bonus point or even more from those two matches I would be very happy,” he said. “They are certainly tough games though and we know we will have to be at our best.

“We played Thatcham at the end of last season and they were very good, and by all accounts they are even better now so we will be in for a tough afternoon.”

Peaple is expecting a forwards orientated game, but insists his side can cope with whatever Thatcham throw at them.

He said: “They have a very small pitch so there is not a lot of room to run around people, so I think we know what to expect.

“It suits their game, but hopefully if we put in a good display then we can come away with something.

“We have been playing some good stuff so we are in with a decent chance.”

Old Boys go into the game at full strength, and welcome back Stuart Knight who had been representing the RAF at the recent Services World Cup in Australia.

Meanwhile, Wootton Bassett skipper Gary Williamson is confident his players will be able to block their recent cup success out of their minds and focus on the league.

Grant Murdoch nailed a last minute conversion to win the Dorset & Wilts Vase in dramatic fashion against North Dorset on Saturday, but attention has already turned to tomorrow’s Southern Counties North clash at home to Tadley.

“Team morale is looking very good at the moment so we are very keen to carry on doing what we have been doing,” Williamson told the Advertiser.

“We were all obviously very pleased to win the cup because it is always good to get a trophy, but the league is very important to us because it is what we play in every week.

“We are determined not to look too far ahead, and we need to take every match as it comes and not look too far back or forwards.

“We need to win games like this because it is very tight at the top of the league, but we know we will need to put in a better performance than we did in the Vase final because we don’t want to be winning games by only one point.”

Bassett go into the clash with a near full strength squad, with only number eight Neil Clarke remaining on the injured list.