Old Patesians 0 v 29 Westcombe Park

Rugby Union National Division Three (south)

WESTCOMBE Park were in a ruthless frame of mind for their visit to the outskirts of Cheltenham where Old Patesians felt the full force of the visitors' growing confidence, writes Mike Attewell.

Old Pats are not having the best of seasons but as Combe know to their cost the ground is not the easiest place to go and get any sort of result.

However, the visitors ran in three tries in the first-half - all of them to the half backs operating behind a solid set of forwards.

James Wiseman was the first to round Old Pats' stretched and scattered defence to touch down and set up Sam Barnett's splendid conversion.

Five minutes later fellow centre Sam Greenaway made excellent use of hitting the ball at speed to carve through for his try.

Not much later Leandre Van Dyk joined the scoring following some audacious play from scrum-half Jean Pierre Joubert.

Tries one and two were converted but Combe were already looking likely to secure the bonus point for four tries.

Old Pats did start the second half brightly but it did not last long and Combe soon exerted a strangle hold on the hosts.

After 15 minutes Combe struck hard visibly sapping the Old Pats' reserve and Ian Hardcastle crossed the line for try number four.

James Whittingham converted with a quite magnificent kick.

With a 24-nil lead Westcombe Park were quite content to contain whatever Old Patesians could muster and they did it by playing most of the game in the host's half.

Then Combe's Tom Mitchell, coming on as replacement with about 10 minutes to go, took the Old Pats' defence apart with a mazing run, side-stepping desperate attempts to tackle and when he was finally brought down, Van Dyk took up possession and went for an unconverted try.

In the dying moments Old Pats rallied in a last ditch attempt to get score and save face but Combe were ruthless and denied them anything.

Combe are at home this weekend to another side struggling for some form when they host Reading at Goddington Dene, Orpington, kick-off 2pm.