Slough 37, Westbury 0

INJURY-hit Westbury fell at the first hurdle in the EDF Senior Vase on Saturday against a physical Slough outfit.

The White Horse men, who last week lost centre Rich Coleman to a career-threatening shoulder injury, suffered a further setback after just 15 minutes.

With the match scoreless and the Westbury forwards in complete control, South African scrum-half Tom Barrell was stretchered off with a suspected broken collar bone.

X-rays later revealed the injury was not as bad as first thought, but the damage on the field had already been done .

Second team skipper Darren Faving bravely stepped in as replacement scrum- half, but the ball to the backs was slow and the forward momentum lost.

The hosts from the Bucks/Berks and Oxon Premier took full advantage to score 37 unanswered points.

Westbury coach Jon Parker believes the injury to Barrell changed the course of the game.

He said: "Before Tom was carried off our forwards were in dominant form. The injury caused us quite a few problems and we never fully recovered.

"Darren did well when he came on but the service from the scrum was a lot slower. It didn't help when he was forced off with injury 20 minutes from the end."

Parker has built a competitive squad at Leighton Green but as the injured list continues to grow, so must his concerns.

The White Horse men host struggling Colerne tomorrow and Parker knows victory is a must to boost morale.

He said: "Obviously it's frustrating to lose your star players but we have enough resources to cope.

"I thought we played well on Saturday and competed with Slough for long periods. The front five in particular were excellent.

"I don't think the scoreline reflected how well we did. We made Slough work hard for 80 minutes but just couldn't quite get over the line - we definitely deserved to get on the scoreboard."

Parker says he will be glad to get back to league action tomorrow, though he believes the cup is not without merit.

"It was a competition we were never expecting to win, but it gives coaches a good chance to blood in a few players.

"It's also good to get experience playing against teams from outside our league. Hopefully the players will learn something from Saturday," he said.