Number eight Cameron Edgar believes Vandals have the quality to challenge the best in Regional Two South Central, despite suffering a first defeat of the campaign on Saturday.

Four yellow cards and a malfunctioning set-piece ultimately undermined Vandals' efforts to make it two wins from their opening two league encounters as they crashed 38-23 at Old Tiffs.

Edgar, who bagged a brace of tries and was a threat all day in both attack and defence, felt there were plenty of positives to take from a game that was a fair reflection of the step-up in quality Vandals will face this term.

And he believes the squad should be confident of competing at the top end of the table rather than worry about the drop zone.

"Old Tiffs are looking like a top three team. The fact we beat them on most levels today, I'm very confident we can look at the top half of the table - potentially even further," said the 24-year-old.

"I think we'll definitely be up there in the league. In terms of quality, we are up there."

He added: "The goal is to be looking to finish in the top half of the table and putting some results on big names in this league."

Oh the irony: Despite Vandals' struggles with the set-piece, Cameron Edgar's second try came from a driven lineout right at the death

Head coach George Pickersgill had earlier in the week identified the contest up front as the key battle ground at the weekend and so it proved as Old Tiffs' sizeable forwards flew out the blocks to help their team to an early 14 point lead.

Two Karl Hoade penalties and Edgar's first closed the gap to three points, but a yellow card just prior to half time for Luke Hempstead proved pivotal with Old Tiffs scoring three unanswered tries either side of the break to ruthlessly tighten their grip on the game.

A magical off load from Taylor gave the returning Hempstead a walk-in, but a flurry of further cards for debutant scrum half Ben Josse, Taylor and Hoade meant a chaotic last quarter before Edgar’s late touch down from the back of a close-range maul.

While Vandals struggled to maintain parity at the set-piece, two of their scores came directly from a scrum and a lineout.

Nevertheless Edgar is only too aware of the 'work-ons' this week ahead of Winchester's visit on Saturday after their impressive 31-12 win at Chobham.

"It was a very difficult start to the game, but we stuck at it," added Edgar.

"We scored some good tries, played some good rugby, but ultimately cards and pens let us down.

"There's a lot we can take on this week. Set piece training, being sharper on discipline. We'll learn from it and hopefully get better."