SWINDON St George’s season ended with a 36-24 defeat to the Portsmouth Seahawks in the West of England Grand Final.

Head coach Ben Whincup admits he was disappointed not to win the final, however, he found it hard to be unhappy with the season’s performance.

“To lose the game, I was disappointed but I was still pleased with the performance as a whole but we spent a lot of energy in the first half,” said Whincup.

“Nobody gave us a chance of getting anywhere this season but we managed to finish top of the league and reach a grand final which exceeded expectations, including my own.

“We’ve been able to do it because of the effort everyone’s put in from pre-season and everyone buying into it has given us the best chance we’ve ever had to compete.”

After conceding first and going 2-0 down, St George reacted with a try, with Connor Tomley adding a further two to make it 6-2.

Their lead didn’t last long, the Portsmouth outfit regained control less than five minutes later when they recorded a try of their own.

At 8-6, Swindon needed to retaliate and that’s what they did after getting their second try of the afternoon, Tomley again adding the extra two.

The score remained at 12-8 after the first period, but they soon conceded two consecutive tries to put them in trouble.

The score was then stretched further from 20-12 to 28-12 as Swindon stared down the barrel of a defeat. A late response came when they registered another try and conversion to make it 28-18.

“At the break, they brought on a couple of quicker players and switched up the pace, however, it took us too long to catch back up with them,” added Whincup.

“Once we worked out what they were doing and countered it, the damage had been done. We were starting to get back into the game when it finished.”

Any faint hopes of a comeback were off when the Seahawks crossed the line twice in succession, but Swindon would not lie down after clawing a late try back, but it was too little too late as they lost 24-36.