DIRECTOR of rugby Martin Lloyd was a relieved man at the weekend after admitting Swindon College Old Boys’ 31-15 success at Abingdon was much closer than the scoreline suggested.

The contest was always likely to be tough as Abingdon sit just a single place below second-placed College in the Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premier table.

Lloyd’s side were not helped by a severely depleted pack for the trip to Lambrick Way, which included skipper Gareth Davis being forced out with illness on the morning of the match.

And the visitors struggled to adapt to the changes in personnel in the early stages but gradually grew into the contest before eventually securing the win with a much-improved second-half effort.

Lloyd said: “It was a really, really tough game. After 30 minutes, we were 3-0 down and not playing well at all. But once we started to be a bit more direct, we made inroads.

“We pride ourselves on our fitness and that started to tell the longer the game went on.

“The forwards really struggled as we had a lot of players missing. When you have to reshuffle your pack to that extent, it makes a big difference as it takes away one of our real strengths.

“We brought on Sean O’Rourke, who is a really experienced prop, which gave us extra ballast in the scrum. We started to match them there and got stronger as the game went on.”

Backs Tucker Blinkhorn, Stuart Knight, Charlie Grabbe and Liam Spillane all claimed tries for Swindon in the bonus-point success, while Adam Reeves’ touchdown ensured the forwards also made an impact on the scoreboard.

Meanwhile, Cricklade’s woes in Dorset and Wilts One North continued as they fell to a 24-5 defeat to Calne.

After accepting promotion last year, they knew it was going to be a tough campaign and set about targeting winning specific matches.

However, in this game, Calne used their larger pack to dominate the early exchanges, taking a 17-0 lead into the interval.

Cricklade showed some good ball skills in the second period but were made to pay for any errors.

The hosts’ only score of the match came when Cricklade won a scrum 10 metres out. Danny Lloyd picked up and made good progress before offloading to Nathan Waite, who played in Matt Blackburn to crash over the line.