Old Patesians – 28
Ledbury – 7
Pats continued their impressive run of form with a commanding performance dominating possession and territory throughout the match to complete an impressive away win which could well have been a rout.
Loosing winger Tom Briscombe and centre Andrew Cox through injury in the opening minutes of the game saw Ben West and George Davis brought in to the fray.
With honours even after 10mins Sam Colbert - Smith's clearance was followed up well by Pats mobile pack with skipper George Carrie arriving first, the ball was quickly won and found newcomer Jake Allen at pace who's strength and pace took him through three tackles to score a converted try on his first start for Pats.
The visitors were inspired and total in control in the set pieces at the rucks wining quick ball at will and with excellent hands they played expansive rugby with Ben West, Zach Robb, Elliot Moore and Tom Head carving through the Ledbury back line with ease but unforced errors and robust Ledbury tackling prevented them adding to the score.
Playing downwind Ledbury frequently kicked too long and lost their advantage or straight to Colbert- Smith giving him plenty of time to field the ball and he frequently linked well with his forwards launching a stream of adventurous counter attacks only for the final pass to go astray, so the half finished at 0-7.
From the kick of Will Safe's magnificent tackle on the Ledbury full back allowed Jack Bell to keep the ball alive with a flip pass to Jamie Leich who released left wing George Davis who put the gas down and scorched 40 metres for a try converted by Lee Hathaway taking the scores to 0-14 Ledbury again paid the price for poor kicking when a clearance found Hathaway on his 10 metre line whose huge diagonal kick down field bounced kindly for Will Safe to collect and charge over taking the game out of sight at 0-21 But the home side were not beaten and when their bulky scrum half forced a missed tackle in midfield the deficit was reduced to 14. It was Pats who were to have the final say and when quick scum ball was won on the Ledbury 22 the simplest of handling which gave George Davis an overlap on the left wing who needed no second invitation to race over and under the posts taking the final score to 7-28 in a game which could easily have coughed up a handful more tries for the visitors had their execution been more clinical.
