UNBEATEN Swindon College Old Boys face their toughest test this weekend as they travel to Hungerford.

After an impressive start, Hungerford sit two places and one point above College, having played a game more but have tasted defeat this year away to Reading Abbey.

College however have looked strong in their early performances, scoring 81 points in their opening three matches, but head coach Mark Lea will ensure there will be no complacency amongst his ranks this weekend.

“The fear for Martin Lloyd and myself is we become too complacent with our early-season results and not show the respect Hungerford obviously deserve,” said Lea.

“In the past, Hungerford have had some very big and direct ball carriers, so our defence will need to show they mean business early in the game.

“At training we have been focusing on converting two-on-one opportunities as we have wasted a few too many chances in previous games.

“We have also done some fine-tuning of our defensive patterns - although our defence has been very strong so far this season, we want to continue to add the fine-tuning pieces so it becomes a real weapon.”

College will have to make a few changes ahead of this weekend’s tie after they lost Tom Birnie last week to what looks like a serious knee injury.

His replacement James Murray, who came on and scored two tries against Gosford All Blacks, is unavailable, as is the influential Charlie Grabe.

This means that September’s player of the month Ritchie Smith comes back to play at flanker, while Josh Haynes comes back at inside centre.

Meanwhile, good performances in the second XV from Joe Smedley and Adam Davies have been rewarded with places on the bench.