OUTGOING Swindon St George coach Ben Whincup praised the efforts of his players, despite them falling to an eight-point loss in Saturday’s West of England Super Fives final against All Golds in Cheltenham.

Whincup’s troops were within close proximity of snatching the game from All Golds’ hands prior to the hosts touching down twice in a short space of time during the second half through Callum Merit and Dieter Thomas.

While the loss came as a disappointing one, Whincup – who will take a step back from coaching responsibilities at the club next season – insisted his men could not have done much more.

He said: “It was a fantastic game between two evenly-matched sides.

“Both teams went to war for 80 minutes, and you don’t often see that at this level.

“The standard was unbelievable and there’s little shame in losing a game like that.

“I’ve got some queries about quite a number of the refereeing decisions.

“On a different day with a different referee the game could’ve gone right down to the wire.

“I think we were harshly done by during a few moments of the game.

“Two of their tries came from incorrect calls in my opinion, which is disappointing.”

St George made a positive start to the game when Scott Douglas squeezed over the line to hand the visitors an early lead before All Golds hit back through Sam Hodge prior to the conclusion of the first half.

Douglas was on hand to equalise for St George after Thomas put the hosts ahead moments before.

It was then that Thomas and Callum Meritt ultimately took the game away from Whincup’s troops, though the St George boss continues to be impressed by the rapid improvement in ability levels for rugby league across the south west.

He said: “Competition across the west of England has increased ten-fold in the past two or three years.

“Rugby League in Swindon is fantastic, people in the north know who we are. And we are one of the top sides in the west I believe, which is fantastic for the region and massive for Swindon itself.

“I’m proud of our performance and the way we battled through against tough opposition.”