The rain sodden pitch did not deter an underperforming young Pats 15 from brushing aside an enthusiastic but outclassed Tewkesbury side in a seven tries to one rout at Everest Road.

Head coach Chris Downes fielded three openside wing forwards in his back row, the pace of Archie Long 6, Jack Nelson 7 and Fraser Goggin 8 saw them dominate the breakdown throughout, keeping the ball alive and causing countless turnovers. Pats opened the scores with an Archie Long break from a scrum 10 meters out with Sam Rhymes securing the extras in front of the posts.

Pats were given a wakeup call as the men in yellow & black immediately hit back taking advantage of some lack lustre midfield tackling spinning the ball wide and a loose pass bounced to Ly Omar to dab down for James Watkins to level the scores with the extras.

Playing up the slope the home side entertained the crowd with open running rugby with the pacey back three trio of Joe Macdean, George Warley and George Bygrave all finding space and making ground. Playing with guile and pace it wasn’t long before the impressive Jamie Thornley broke for the line before unselfishly finding the ubiquitous Jack Nelson on his shoulder to run around between the posts for Rhymes to convert.

Pats three magnificent sevens caused havoc at ruck and line out time positioning themselves perfectly over the ball in the tackle to steal possession and scooping up everything loose allowing the home side to dominate the pace of the game.

An audacious Thornley kick dummy saw him round the flailing defence before being dragged down short of the line. Skipper Max Folkard was in fire with his trademark bullockIng runs from deep, a 40 metre charge from halfway looked like him going all the way but it was Nelson on hand again to help himself to his brace as half time loomed.

With the game out of sight Pats put their foot on the gas pounding the Tewkesbury line with number eight turned centre Charlie Maker going over three times only for the tries to be disallowed.

Maker finally delivered the bonus point try with an unstoppable burst of power from short range for Rhymes to convert. Pats hooker Damien Dinwiddy found himself in possession in acres of space on the Tewkesbury 22 dashing over under the crossbar and newcomer tighthead prop Jonny Daws showed remarkable pace to make it six for the Pats.

Thornley was outstanding in midfield looking like scoring every time he was in possession and a 50 metre break saw him pulled up inches from the line but with Nelson, Long and Goggin arriving first the ball was whipped out by scrum half Rhymes finding his 10 Josh Lawrence who linked with Thornley to find replacement Dan Duncan – Webster who completed the rout with a well taken try in the corner.

Norman Bell