SUPERMARINE beat both the weather and Fairford as they carved out a well-earned 16-3 victory at home to the Gloucestershire side.

Despite heavy rain in the days leading up to the game the South Marston pitch was deemed playable after wind blew standing water from the surface. This allowed top scorer Matty Dickens to score the only try of the game in the second half and win the game for Marine.

The remainder of the points came from the reliable boot of kicker Stu Dawson, leaving head coach Sean Millwaters delighted with the victory in tough conditions on what was the club’s President’s Day.

“Fairford are a hard team to play and despite the fact we got a bonus-point victory from them in a really physical, hard, game of rugby as it always is, we knew it was going to be tough,” he said.

“The pitch wasn’t amazing even though the standing water had been blown off by the wind but we had to take the game to them from the off. It was a tough game but we made the best of things.

“I said to the lads ‘on a day like this with the wind and the rain we have to dominate the breakdown’ and that’s exactly what we did.

“They won the toss and chose to play with the wind, which suited us, and we turned round 6-3 up. They went into route one rugby but we were able to run the ball whenever we could and Matty scored his try and Stu kicked his points.

“In those conditions I think the score was fair and we got what we deserved.”

The victory sees Marine stay fifth in Dorset and Wilts 1 North but they are just seven points behind leaders Bradford-on-Avon with two games in hand.

Millwaters puts his side’s strong position down to their defensive record.

“Fairford didn’t look like scoring and the bottom line is we really don’t concede many points,” he said.

“We have the best defensive record in the league I think and that gives us plenty of confidence because we know the opposition have to score a really good try to get anything against us.

“That is a great platform for us and it’s a good record to have. We’ve still got some of the lower teams to play this season so hopefully we can keep it going there.”

Marine host Pewsey Vale this weekend.