SWINDON rugby club is now just one game away from playing at Twickenham Stadium following an extraordinary 48-0 victory over Witney in the Southern Counties Intermediate Cup final.

Nick Brooks’ men – who compete in Southern Counties South – blew their Southern Counties North rivals away with stunning defence and a handful of early tries to set up a meeting with Wellington in the South West Intermediate Cup final on Saturday March 14.

The Greenbridge Road club is still on track for what they call ‘the road to Twickenham’ – the cup competition that applies to level seven teams in English rugby teams – after inflicting Witney’s second defeat of the season.

Most considered the disparity in the scoreline to be shocking – but not Brooks, who said every single member of his squad performed admirably to secure the win.

He said: “We were very fortunate to have such a strong squad available – we had 21 players involved with six on the bench.

“But every player stood up on the day and played their part. “Everyone that took part performed exceptionally well, they all did their job, nothing stupid, nothing flash or frantic.

“It was all done steadily, and I think our game plan to keep it tight down the middle and then go wide once we’ve drawn them in worked perfectly.

“We scored two quick tries in the first 15 minutes – we were quite dominant in the scrum, our set piece was really good again, and our backs did the magic.”

As well as some magic when going forward, Swindon kept a clean sheet for the second week in a row while adding to their incredible defensive effort over the last four outings.

Just three tries have been allowed by Brooks’ men in the last month, going a long way to suggest why they have been so hard to beat.

When asked whether there was a player that particularly stood out during the weekend’s win though, the Swindon coach once again highlighted the collective display of his defence.

Brooks said: “With the scoreline being as it was you can’t really identify one or two players.

“It was a 15-man defence that kept them from scoring at all – that’s two weeks in a row now where we’ve kept a team out completely.

“Some teams focus quite heavily on their attacking prowess and they can become quite weak in the defence or vice versa.

“But I would like to think that we’re an all-around good team.”