Bath Gladiators travelled to Swindon on Saturday in the first league game of the season which ended in defeat for the Gladiators.
Swindon who had the luxury of calling on a number of their Southern Conference squad due to it later start this year, applied the early pressure from kick-off and were rewarded with 2 early tries in the 4th and 12th minute of the first half. However, if the first 20 minutes belonged to Swindon, the Gladiators began to show their metal in the latter stages of the first half with captain Brandon Ball leading the fight back with his first try of the season before excellent work from Michael Salter on the half way line to break free and set up Rob Sully to bring the scores level at 10-10 at half-time.
Bath began the second half as they had ended the first, on the front foot and were causing Swindon a number of problems. That pressure paid off with a quick double through Jake Brookes and Joe Cockshott to make the score 22-10. However, the balance of the game once again shifted back to Swindon as they began to find space on the wings and went over the line multiple times to stretch their lead to 32-22. Bath responded with a rally towards the end of the half with Kyle Armstrong bringing the scores to within 1 try at 32 -28 but as the referee blowing the final whistle it was Swindon who got the victory against their local rivals.
Next up for Matt Bodeys’ men is an away trip to Oxford Cavaliers on Saturday. Kick off 14:30