SWINDON Under 15s just failed to defeat Witney on their own turf as they went down 24-21 in their first game back after the festive break.

Playing his first game since injuring his neck just before the Christmas break, full-back Josh Shave, prevented the home side from going ahead with a fine tackle. The resulting scrum allowed the backs to set Jason Wright on his way to score his first try of the day with Dan Whitmore adding the conversion. Witney hit back five minutes later with an unconverted try and added another in the 20th minute.

Swindon scored again when, from a set move, Wright burst through to score under the posts, Whitmore converting to leave the scores level.

Witney went further ahead with an unconverted try and a controversial touchdown, with Shave and Phil Cozens both looking to have held up the scorer.

Swindon camped in the Witney 22 for the final 10 minutes and the pressure paid off with a try from Cozens, again converted by Whitmore.

Swindon: Anthony Cadder, Michael Calvert, Liam Carr, Phil Cozens, Tom Farr, Nick Honeyman-Brown, Grant Hurry, Joe Jamrozy, Matt Luker, Tom Martin, Sam Morley, Tristan Orr, Lee Reeves, Andrew Rogers, Josh Shave, Danny Vizor, Dan Whitmore, Jason Wright.