SWINDON Storm’s record breaking run came to an end at the weekend as they were beaten 20-6 by Bristol Apache in torrid conditions.

Head coach Rich Van Sloten had guided his troops to a club record of six straight victories going into the weekend, but says his team were up against it from the off.

Some defensive mistakes meant Storm found themselves 14-0 down by the time they reached the halfway stage.

The second half started later than usual as the thunder and lightning hovered overhead, before Bristol stretched their to 20-6 in the second half, with Greg Roscow the solitary Storm scorer.

“The weather wasn’t really a big factor because two teams were playing in it, it was a defensive game to be honest,” said the storm chief.

“We couldn’t finish on Sunday and I don’t know why that is. The defence were outstanding because the game was a bit of a seesaw.

“Bristol made us work a lot harder. They came to win the championship and we learn more from these kinds of games.

“No disrespect to the other teams, but they were a little bit weaker than Bristol. We lost the game but the two games we gave Bristol this year were such a major improvement to previous years.

“I’m friends with a lot the Bristol players and they were all taken back by how we have improved.”

The Storm boss says he was anticipating a game of fine margins and believes that proved to be the case as mistakes played their part in the outcome of the match.

“There were one or two mistakes which cost us, I felt it was always going to be a game of mistakes,” said Van Sloten.

“The team who make the least mistakes are always going to come out on top, unfortunately it was us who made them.

“We lost but when I look back wouldn’t have done anything differently. The players have nothing to be embarrassed about, we still have two games left and a chance of playing in the play-offs.

“We need to up our game for the next two matches. I said to the players we can win, lose or draw any game, it just depends how we come into it.”