RUGBY: College deserved a little more... (From Swindon Advertiser)

RUGBY: College deserved a little more...

9:00am Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in Local

SWINDON College Old Boys manager Martin Peaple felt a 23-14 scoreline flattered Littlemore after his side took victory in the Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premier.

Old Boys were 18-0 up at one stage before Littlemore capitalised on second-half errors to reduce the deficit.

And Peaple said: “Those two tries suggest the match was closer than it was.

“They were the only times Littlemore really threatened and those scores were as a result of our mistakes.

“We could have won by more because we had some good periods of play, but sometimes the final ball wasn’t getting to the man and they were spoiling the play a lot.”

Scott Buchanan slotted over a penalty after seven minutes following an indiscretion by the Littlemore forwards, and soon after he added another three points.

Old Boys then began to assert themselves and wing Toby Haynes beat his opposite number before planting the ball firmly over the try line.

Good work from Mark Williams allowed Sam Robinson to hand-off the last line of defence and score under the posts, with Buchanan adding the extras to make it 18-0.

More of the same followed at the start of the second period and Haynes went over for his second try of the day.

However, Old Boys then gifted two cheap tries, although the hosts felt one of those should have been disallowed for offside.

The game then became an ill-disciplined affair and Robinson was sent off, while a visiting player was sin-binned.

Meanwhile, Swindon lost a desperately close encounter with visitors Reading 6-3 in South West 1 East.

Fly-half Adam Westall kicked a penalty for the hosts four minutes in, but Reading replied midway through the second half courtesy of Rob Sweeney.

Westall, normally so reliable with the boot, missed a chance to put Swindon back in front, before Sweeney sent a penalty from wide out through the uprights in the closing stages.

Wootton Bassett’s hopes of grabbing second place in Southern Counties North were dealt a blow as they were convincingly beaten at Beaconsfield.

Bassett are now four points off second - which is a play-off spot - having lost 43-5 at the home of the league leaders.

Windsor, Grove and Milton Keynes are the other sides all chasing second, with the first two outfits still having an outside chance of winning the league.

Elsewhere, Chippenham were comfortably beaten 31-5 at home by National League 3 South West table-toppers Bournemouth.