Royals unfortunate not to 'nick a result', says Windsor RFC's Jack Pattinson

Jack Pattinson believes Windsor were capable of 'nicking a result' against Marlborough at the weekend, with the coach praising his side’s ‘superb’ efforts in challenging conditions on Saturday.

Under the heavy rain of Storm Jorge, the Royals gave their fifth placed visitors a hard fought battle and had the lead on two occasions.

Jack Gaylor fired the Royals into the lead with an early penalty before the full back notched himself another one on the hour mark, shifting Windsor back in the ascendancy with 20 minutes of the game remaining.

But as conditions overhead began to worsen, Windsor found themselves struggling to suppress the strong winds as they looked to extend their lead. Combined with Marlborough's strong pack, the game began to run away from Windsor.

“It was about as bad as the conditions could’ve got,” said Pattinson.

“It was almost a disadvantage when you had the ball. You saw both teams kicking loads. But credit to Marlborough for coming down and being up for the game.

“They are a really strong team and their intent to play the game in those conditions was amazing.

“We hung in and thought if we could be in the game with five or ten minutes to go, we could nick it if we got an opportunity.

“It didn’t quite happen but I’m so proud of the boys. They were incredible.

“We defended well, got stuck into the set piece and nearly nicked it,” added Pattinson. “But we’ll go again and we’ll have better days.”

“We’ve got a big game against Trowbridge away on Saturday and we’ve just got to lick our wounds and get ready to take them on.”

Windsor overcame Trowbridge 21-5 when they faced them at Home Park back in November.