Having won an attritional encounter by a single try last week, today saw the Colts return to Everest Road to take on Tewkesbury.

The sky was grey, the wind whipping off the hill and the promise of winter suggested our brand of running rugby may be a challenge. We knew our guests could play a bit too but we had a few boys returning from injury and had picked an athletic, powerful and mobile team.

The initial exchanges saw a lively attack from Tewkesbury spoiled by a knock on. From the solid scrum, Jack at inside centre made an incisive break and, to the delight of all the coaches drew and passed in textbook fashion, the final defender. Barney was in support and turned on the burners to reach the posts untouched. 7-0 after only a couple of minutes.

As last week, the coaches asked for intensity and they got it. The tackles were flying in and we had the upper hand, despite playing up the hill. We were under some pressure but, our defence was solid and forced an unwise pass. Barney, snapped up the interception and raced away. He really is very quick! 14-0

Tewkesbury opened their account after we were caught offside with a nice penalty kick but we were straight back in the fight. A wasted penalty, kicked dead gave us a scrum on halfway and from the base, skipper MSJ broke clear making a big gain. In support was Ben L who crashed over near the posts despite several defenders resisting. 21-3.

Tewkesbury had some hard carrying runners and a missed tackle saw them break through for a score. Buoyed by this, they began to play some more expansive stuff, eventually outflanking the defence to score again in the corner though the kick was missed.

Jonny was pulling strings behind the pack and, at his orchestration, we drove up towards the posts. Luke, Woody and Saxon hitting it up prior to Charlie H forcing over from a pick and go. 26-15 at the half time whistle.

Both teams knew of the advantage the slope affords and the opposition had no intention of allowing us to use it as they kept the ball well and pounded our line. We managed to hold them up over the line on a couple of occasions but, eventually, they made it across. 26-20.

The referee was frustrated by some sloppy work at get breakdown from the visitors on a couple of occasions. We kicked effectively to deep in their half and, from a well worked lineout move Max peeled away from the maul to score under the posts. Hoggy’s radar temporarily deserted him on an otherwise successful afternoon with the boot but we still lead by two scores.

Under renewed bombardment and deep in our 22, we forced a crucial knock-on. The scrum was only five meters from our line but captain Max picked up and ran. Evading their back row with the pace of his carry, the fly half was discarded with a hand off and it was then a foot race to the line which he won convincingly. A 95 yard run! He’ll be talking about that one for years! Hoggy back on target 38-20

Still they came at us mounting a multi phase assault. We couldn’t hold out forever and they got their bonus point try. However, we were not quite done ourselves. Lordy, now at number 8 since the skipper needed a rest from all that running, picked up and charged into the fray. Barney is super-sharp round the fringe and spotted a gap through which he nipped to complete his hat trick. A superb performance tormenting the opposition all game.

He wasn’t the only one putting in a great shift though. Several lads put their hands up but, for the second week running, George E was excellent in both attack and defence.

As the rain started, the game became more scrappy with errors preventing further scores. Seven well-worked tries was sufficient for a win and a happy changing room. Allez les Pats!

Tom Perris