The much-used phrase “it’s a game of two halves” could never have been used more appropriately than to describe the remarkable turnaround of events at Everest Road in the Counties Two Tribute Gloucestershire league clash between third-place Pats and sixth-placed Richians.

With the supporters barely settled in their places the visitors shocked the Pats with a score from the kickoff when a misjudgement that the ball was not travelling 10 metres saw Richians left-wing Croft Spencer scoop up the ball to stroll over for a converted try after barely 15 seconds of play

Old Richians dominated possession and territory throughout the majority of the first half adding a penalty after 2 minutes from the educated boot of Jamie Mayall to make it 0-10

Handling errors and a higher-than-desirable penalty count allowed the visitors to continue to dominate proceedings

Finally, the young Pats got their hands on the ball and with pace all along their three-quarter line it was full-back Oliver Stevens who saw a gap and pierced the defiant Richians defence to race over from halfway finishing a width of the field move with a try converted by Sam Rhymes.

Richians hit back with a converted try on half time to make it 7 – 17 at the break leaving the Gloucester side wondering if a 10-point lead was enough with Pats playing with the wind and the slope in the second half

Rhymes narrowed the deficit to three points when converting a Lucas Town try with one minute on the clock in the second half.

Clearly, the insistence to raise their performance from Pats’ charismatic head coach Chris Downes in his rallying halftime speech paid off, his young team responded to his request to find another gear

Pats looked like a different side going close early on in the second half with wave after wave of attacks only held out by dogged defence from Richians, Joe McDean had a try disallowed when the receiving pass was deemed forward

But there was no mistake when Pats top try scorer Jamie Thorley collected on the Richians 22 and juggling the ball in the air he crashed through a beleaguered defence after some excellent forwards and backs interplay.

Five minutes later Rhymes picked out Thorley in midfield and ignoring a two-man overlap he backed himself charging through three defenders for a remarkable individual try completing his brace and the bonus point, Rhymes nudged over the extras

Joe Mcdean showed his pace down the right wing crossing the whitewash and round under the bar leaving an easy conversion for Rhymes.

Jack Hamilton had another fine game covering the hard yards and as the game drew to a close, astonishing strength saw him rip the ball free from a line-out maul to power home from 40 meters out, duly converted by Rhymes

So Pats won the second half 33-0 securing their place at the top of the league with a game in hand over second-placed Cheltenham North as they prepare to travel to bottom-of-the-table Old Cryptians next Saturday

Allez les Pats!

Norman Bell