MARLBOROUGH skipper Nathan Morgan insisted his side should be proud of their achievements despite seeing their dreams of a final at Twickenham dashed.

The Common side bowed out of the RFU Senior Vase at the quarter final stage as they lost 39-7 to Drybrook last Saturday.

Marlborough had reached the last eight nationally after lifting the Dorset & Wilts Vase late last year, then adding the Southern Counties prize with victory at Chipping Norton earlier this month.

But a place in the last four – just 80 minutes away from an appearance in the national final – eluded them as the Forest of Dean outfit delivered a powerful performance.

Full-back Morgan, who converted his side’s only try scored by Taniela Delaitamana in the second half, said: “We’ve had a pretty good year.

“Before Saturday, we had won every match we’d put a side out in except one.

“Cain (Price, club coach) has said that, at the start of the season, if we’d said that we would have done that and got to the quarter finals of the national Vase, we’d have taken that.

“We’ve got six league games left (in Dorset & Wilts One North) and we want to finish well and get as many points as we can from them.’’

Drybrook, led by a hat-trick of tries from scrum-half Carl Moore, proved a step too far in front of a large crowd on a bitingly cold day on The Common.

“The way they played was really forwards-based and they were really effective at it,’’ he said.

“We didn’t really get the chance to play the sort of game we wanted to.

“It was disappointing, but the conditions didn’t help how we wanted to play.

“Credit to Drybrook too though, because they stopped us and they played the slope and the wind very well.’’