MARLOW RFC completed a cleansweep over High Wycombe RUFC on Saturday with their first team setting the standard with a 36-6 victory at the start of the Southern Counties North season.

Marlow 2s back them up with a 12-5 win while the third team completed a hat-trick by beating their Bucks rivals 36-5.

But it was the first team’s triumph that mattered most with two tries from Matt Saunders, further scores from Miles Noble and George Jafari and a penalty try completing the win for Richard Kinsey’s team.

He said: “It couldn’t have gone any better, it was a bonus point win against our local rivals and the second and third teams also won so I’m really pleased for everyone.”

However, while 36-6 sounds like it was a straightforward match Kinsey insists his team had to work very hard for the bonus point victory.

He said: “The score doesn’t reflect how Wycombe played.

“They didn’t do as much as they couldn’t done with the ball but they didn’t lie down.

“I know 36-6 sounds like one-way traffic. It wasn’t. There were times when they were attacking but we defended really, really well.

“Our confidence in our defence has really improved over the summer. We’ve done lots of contact work in training and it showed.”

Marlow’s resolve was most tested late on, when they had three men in the sin bin.

Kinsey said: “We only had 12 men on the paddock for about five minutes, but we defended brilliantly and didn’t concede any points in that time.

“We could have thought, ‘oh, we’re a long way ahead’ and got complacent. But we worked and worked and worked and kept our tryline clean.

“I am certain we couldn’t have done that last year.”

Marlow host Thatcham on Saturday but Kinsey is refusing to set targets.

He said: “We’re not professionals. I want everyone to enjoy their rugby this season, it’s as simple as that. If we get that then we’ll have won and I don’t care about the results at the end of the season.”

Meanwhile, High Wycombe will hope to rally strongly at Kingsmead on Saturday afternoon, when Milton Keynes are the visitors.