On a warm and sunny Sunday morning at The Park, the Old Pats were in determined mood for their opening fixture of the season against a strong looking Cheltenham Tigers. The match started with real pace and urgency on both sides, however it was Tigers who settled more quickly and began pushing forward with some strong attacking play.

The Tigers looked to take advantage of their larger physical size and they seemed to move forward with wave after wave of attacking plays. The Old Pats defence was strong and they repelled the attacks with some great tackling and defensive kicking and managed to keep them out for the first 10 minutes. However, a moment of individual pace from Tigers enabled them to breach the Old Pats defence and take the lead with their first try.

Following a second individual try from Tigers a few minutes later, the Old Pats managed to break out of defence with a fantastic burst of pace up the pitch followed by a good piece of rucking, a quick ball was won and they managed to drive over the line to pull one back. The game was on!!

Old Pats grew in confidence and came back into the game throughout second period of the match and were able to test the Tigers defence with some good pace and attacking play. Unfortunately, many Old Pats moves would often break down with some handling errors both in the tackle or with some wayward passes which gave Tigers some easy ball. Eventually, the more physical dominance and excellent passing game from Tigers would win through and they would score 2 more tries before the end of the match.

Overall, Old Pats played well and the entire team can be proud of their efforts and take a huge amount of confidence away from their first encounter of the season. Ultimately Tigers deserved the victory but Pats will bounce back for sure. Well played all.

Old Pats 1 –  4 Cheltenham Tigers

Thank you to all the coaches including Nick, Hutch & Paul for taking the fixture and for refereeing so well throughout.

Graham More