MUCH-CHANGED Swanage & Wareham were unable to battle back from a sticky start and ultimately came up short in their 17-8 defeat at Walcot.

Swans, whose squad was decimated by injury prior to their Southern Counties South trip, conceded 10 points in the opening five minutes before holding their own for the rest of the match.

But despite showing steely resolve after their nightmare opening, the Bestwall outfit could not build up enough pressure to seriously trouble their Bath-based hosts.

From the kick-off, sloppy Swanage gave away a penalty in their own 22 which was quickly tapped and spread out to the wing for the opening try of the afternoon.

Matters quickly got worse with Walcot choosing to kick their second penalty in the opening passage of play to take a 10-0 lead before Swans could regain their composure.

Charlie Parish wasted a brace of penalties which would have dragged his side back into contention before the home side’s direct game paid off in the 28th minute with the referee awarding a penalty try when the visitors were deemed to have pulled down a scrum.

Parish pulled back three points with his first successful kick 10 minutes after half-time but Phil Graves’ solitary try with five minutes to play proved academic, despite the Swans’ second-half pressure.

Elsewhere, previous high-flyers Wimborne suffered their third straight league defeat at North Dorset who secured the verdict 16-12. Doug Robertson and Steve King scored the Minstermen’s tries.