SWINDON coach Nick Brooks is hoping history can repeat itself when his side take on runaway leaders Grove this afternoon in Southern Counties South.

The Greenbridge Road outfit is the only team to have inflicted a defeat on champions elect Grove having beaten their visitors 17-11 back in early November.

And if Swindon has any hope of pipping their weekend hosts to the title, victory must be accrued in Wantage to prevent a potential 14-point gap opening up.

Brooks’ men are in sparkling form at the moment too, having booked their spot in the South West Counties Intermediate Cup final last weekend.

Their incredible 48-0 win was in no small part down to the efforts of the defence, according to the coach, and something similar will be necessary if Swindon is to repeat the trick this afternoon.

Brooks said: “Grove have run away with the league a little bit, but we did beat them at our place and we’re the only team to have beaten them this season in the league.

“That win was again down to our top-notch defence, we just went at them and closed them down quickly.

“This weekend, it will pretty much be focused on getting off the line and getting into their faces as quickly as possible to stop them from playing rugby.”

Though Swindon has been bumbling along quite nicely of late, the club was brought back down to earth earlier in the week when start fly-half Adam Westall was diagnosed with a broken arm.

Brooks said Westall’s absence will certainly be felt on the field, but the backs coach’s experience off it can more than make up for that.

He said: “The only downer for us at the moment has been the news that we lost one of our talisman, Adam Westall, to a broken arm that he sustained during last weekend’s game.

“Hopefully we haven’t lost him for the whole season, but it will be six or seven weeks until we see him again in a playing capacity.

“He might make it back in time for the Twickenham game, should we make it, but for the time being he will just be our backs coach.

“He’ll carry on pulling the strings in that department, making sure we remain a dominant force.”