With at least 10 changes, Pats rested many of their first team players, choosing to bring through another handful of promising youngsters from their thriving juniors section to face a significantly stronger Minchinhampton side at Hampton Fields.

Looking by far the sharpest side, Minchinhampton seized control from the get-go as their deep kick-off saw a seemingly hypnotised Pats forward pack watch the ball bounce between them untouched and into touch for a line out 10 meters out. A poor clearance gave possession back to the home side, and Pats quickly realised that they were facing a very different team from their previous week’s drubbing of the same opposition. For a quarter of a match, the men in green dominated possession and territory, with bulky Daniel Wood and Johnathan Acton repeatedly testing the visitor’s defence. When their classy full-back Joshua Lister exposed a defensive mix-up, he walked between the centre partnership of Kristian Taft and Wyatt Dundas and under the bar for the easiest of converted tries.

A palpable realisation was evident in the Pats’ eyes as they knew this was not going to be another stroll in the park; they upped a gear, and with his fist touch of the ball, Sam Rhymes scorched the turf with an upfield dash finding Damian Dinwiddy who narrowed the gap with a five-pointer out wide. Then came a moment of actual class; muscular Max Folkard ripped the ball from a maul deep in Pats 22 and found Jonny Fenley in space whose precocious pace and power saw him swatting off would-be tacklers on a 70-meter dash to the line intelligently looping around under the bar for a remarkable try giving the simplest of conversions for Lucas Town. Now in full stride, Pats upped the pace again to a level the home side couldn’t cope with, a sweeping right-to-left move initiated by Rhymes, who found Town to link with Taft and then on to Wyatt Dundas, whose perfectly timed pass put Joe Mcdean away to outpace the defence for Pats’ third.

Tighthead Prop Jonny Daws put in another fine performance with his athleticism and audacious dummies seeing him gain good ground in an excellent performance throughout; newcomers in the boilerhouse partnership Nathan Burtwell and Ben Godden stood out with bulldozing charges, and 1^st team debutant colt Freddie Parry clearly one to watch going close twice when coming on for the injured Taft.

It was speedster Mcdean again who finished off a slick handling move to collect his brace and the bonus point making it 7-31 as halftime beckoned. Knowing that the contest was over, the visitors opened up the game, and from the kick-off, an excellently timed Dundas pass found Pats’ newest colt to join the 1st team ranks, Ollie French, who made no mistake in opening his account with a well-taken try for Town to convert.

Down but not out, Minchinhampton’s omnipresent openside Johnathan Acton powerfully worked the ball upfield before finding the smallest man on the park Ben Jones who outpaced the Pats for a superbly taken try between the posts. Almost indignant at the temerity of having their lines crossed, Pats launched a blistering attack pounding the Minchinhampton midfield with phase after phase of recycling in a relentless onslaught to finish off the match. Dominant at scrum time, the simplest of moves from the base of a set piece put try-scoring machine Fenley in for his brace, swiftly followed by a Jack Nelson 30-meter individual effort taking the game out of sight.

It was Nelson’s power again that was too strong to deal with as he crashed over for his brace and Pats eighth try; Dundas got in on the act, typically swerving and jinking his way over; Billy Harris made it ten for the Pats, and Dinwiddy helped himself to his brace completing the devastating fightback.

Norman Bell

(Posted by Laurence Hale)