ROBERT Elford felt Swanage and Wareham's pack "punched above their weight" as they beat promotion rivals Cheltenham 11-5 at home.

Flanker Lewis Hughes gave the visitors a 5-0 lead with an early try in their South West Division Two East clash at Bestwall.

But the Purbeckers hit back with two Phil Graves penalties to lead 6-5 at half time and then clinched a hard-earned victory with a late Elford try.

Swans' captain Elford said: "Cheltenham have some big lads up front and they probably had a stone advantage on us per man.

"They scored an early try but apart from that they didn't look like troubling us, so it was a good dogged performance.

"Up front our forwards did particularly well.

"We knew as a pack we had not played to the best of our ability in our previous two games when we dropped three points.

"So we knew we had to improve and we did.

"It was a very important to get back to winning ways, particularly against a tough team like Cheltenham.

"Now we need to build on it in our next two games away at Walcott, who are fourth, and at home to leaders Chippenham in three weeks time."

Swans are second, three points behind Chippenham, but three ahead of third-placed Cheltenham.

Elford said: "We assume second would secure a play-off place, and although we have not written off top spot, we want to try and put more points between us and Cheltenham."

Swanage and Wareham: Wilcox (McKeown 57), S Andrews, P Graves, Grove, Parish, Harris, Beaves, O Andrews, R Elford, Sheldrake (Rance 76), Burgess, Snowden, Penney (Cottrell 74), Warren, M Elford.