DEVIZES captain Tom Collins believes the Saddlebacks will be better prepared for their maiden campaign in South West One East after Saturday’s opening home defeat.

Collins’ men lost out 29-23 to Northamptonshire visitors Towcestrians in front of a lareg crowd at London Road, securing a losing bonus point from their first-ever match at level six.

The home side shipped three second-half tries before finishing the match strongly, Collins’ kick setting up a try for substitute wing Luke Rapson just before the final whistle, as fly-half Andy Thompson kicked 18 points.

Devizes head to Collins’ former club Windsor, who put more than 40 points on hosts Cheltenham on the opening weekend, on Saturday but the scrum-half reckons his players have a better understanding of the task awaiting them this season.

“It gave us a good benchmark and an idea of what we will be up against this season,”' he told the Gazette & Herald.

“We were fairly pleased with our performance, although not the result, and felt we could have sneaked the win at the end.

“There were a couple of lapses in defence and we know that in this league, that is what is going to cost you.

“But I felt it was a really positive start.

“The more games we play in this division, we won't be so green.'”

Collins believes the way Devizes fought back to claim at least a bonus point from the game demonstrated the attitude in the squad.

He added: “I think we realise at that point we probably couldn’t win the game so we tried to get something out of it.

“That's the good thing about this team, we're all really competitive.”

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