TROWBRIDGE head coach Dan Jeffries held his hands up and admitted that Swanage & Wareham deserved to vanquish his side in the Dorset & Wilts Senior Cup final.

The two Southern Counties South rivals met at North Dorset’s Slaughtergate ground for the right to progress to regional competition but the Swans, who currently top the table, put an end to Trowbridge’s progress by running out 25-20 winners.

Jeffries thought that the way that Swanage put his team in a vice-grip early on proved decisive but thought that Trowbridge could have few regrets over their performance.

“We started a little bit slowly but Swanage started really, really well and made it really difficult for us,” said the Doric Park chief.

“After going ahead in the first 20 minutes, they just settled down and played a real territory game.

“They starved us of the ball and made it so that we couldn’t play pure rugby at all.

“It was tough but we were against a good side, who were very composed, and once we got over that first 20 minutes, we played well.

“It was also great to see Sean Jones scoring on his first game back from retirement.”

The Swans’ early dominance saw them race into an 8-0 lead but Trowbridge’s former Twickenham hero Sean Jones, back in action after coming out of retirement, went over the line to hit back.

A converted score saw Swanage increase their advantage to 15-5 but an Ollie Weaver penalty and converted try from Justin Reed brought Jeffries’ troops to within two points of their Dorset opponents.

However, the Swans pulled off another scoring run to widen the gap once again to 25-13 and despite Jones going over for his second try, with the extras added successfully, Trowbridge’s bid to get their hands on some silverware fell short.