SWINDON rugby coach Nick Brooks is banking on home advantage working in his team’s favour when Yeovil visit Greenbridge Road on Saturday.

Brooks’ men are set to play their second fixture in a bank of five where the team will not travel outside of Swindon to play a competitive fixture.

Yeovil on Saturday is the second, while there is the small matter of a Southern Counties Intermediate Cup semi-final at home to Reading to contest the week after.

The only away game of the sequence comes as Brooks’ side head across town to play Swindon College Old Boys before ending their home run against Thatcham on February 15.

The Swindon coach is hoping to see his side benefit from a continuous run of home fixtures as they big to put pressure on leaders Grove before the two clubs’ meeting in late February.

Brooks said: “It’s quite refreshing to have this many home games in a row, especially in January when people are maybe a little strapped for cash.

“It saves people driving long distances and spending money on those long days out.

“So it’s quite refreshing to be home shortly after Christmas when we’ve been at home once already.

“Then we’ve got another two home games coming up and an away game against our local rivals Swindon College Old Boys.

“So having four weeks where we’re at least in Swindon is really helpful because we benefit from home advantage with all the supporters coming out to back the team.”

While home advantage will no doubt go some way to giving Swindon the edge against Yeovil, Brooks knows his side will have to perform somewhere close their best if they are to take a positive result.

A repeat of the emphatic 42-point win from the previous weekend against Swanage & Wareham is the benchmark for Brooks, who says adapting to weather conditions will be vitally important once again.

He said: “I would expect the same intensity, the same level of concentration and the same levels of performance that we saw in last week’s win.

“We want to see the boys being very clinical and switched onto the environment that we will play in.

“The weather hasn’t been great recently, but that’s worked in our favour.

“When the bigger teams in our league have come down – the top six, certainly – we’ve been smart surrounding our strengths and weaknesses.

“And we’ve considered the weather conditions as well to make sure we execute the right game plan on the day.”