SWINDON St George produced a battling performance to beat last year’s West of England finalists Somerset Vikings 36-32 at Greenbridge Road.

In their first home game of 2013, St George flew out of the traps as they manipulated their opening set of six tackles to great territorial effect.

The hosts’ early dominance paid off when the ball was moved swiftly out wide and Richard White ghosted in unopposed to touch down.

Despite player-coach Carl Baker being sent to the sin bin after 15 minutes for kicking out in the tackle, Swindon’s 12 men stood firm and even extended their advantage when Milo Hartley’s grubber kick was chased down and taken over by White.

With Hartley and fellow half-back Jim Roden running the game, Somerset were unable to contain the home side and Roden created himself the room to run in St George’s third try following a subtle dummy.

Swindon were threatening to run away with the game before half-time, as Roden’s long kick took a wicked bounce to land in the arms of the onrushing Baker, who scored St George’s fourth.

With the hosts almost out of sight, however, Somerset hit back just before the break and two quick scores late in the first half hauled them right back into the game, which was poised at 18-10 at half-time.

In the second half, the Vikings pushed hard to get on top in the initial stages but Swindon soon re-established their first-half rhythm and full-back Rychknyx McKenzie danced his way over to open up a comfortable buffer.

Somerset replied in kind but Swindon were not to be outdone and Ben Bridson went over using his brute force.

A further two Vikings scores sandwiched young winger Sam Strong’s first try for St George. The 17-year-old was quickest to react to a Somerset knock-on and raced away to score.

White then completed a rare hat-trick, burrowing through a crowd of bodies to touch down, and once again Swindon seemed as though they were strolling to victory.

However, Somerset were still not done and after they managed another score - thanks to Swindon’s poor goalkicking - they found themselves just four points behind with five minutes to go having scored two fewer tries than their hosts.

In the final stages the Vikings threw everything at Swindon but the home defence stood strong. Declan Mann and Strong hauled down a Somerset player in a tremendous, try-saving tackle to secure the points.

Hat-trick hero White said: “I’m really proud of the team today. Those first 30 minutes was some of the best rugby we’ve ever played.

“Unfortunately we let them back into the game but then they are a good team.

“We still played some good rugby but we really had to dig deep in defence at the end and got the win we deserved.”

Player-coach Baker said: “Home form is so important as the results of the rest of the matches our division show how tight this season could be.”