Another excellent attacking performance from Old Priorians saw them beat Teddington 43-31 on Friday night at Cobham RFC, as the Twisters move up to fifth place in Regional 2 Thames.

Early pressure yielded a penalty to OPs in front of the posts, full back Emilio Uribe making no mistake and slotting the three points, only to see the Antlers soak up some possession and advance into the visiting 22, moving the ball into the backs from a lineout maul for winger Josh McKiernan to score under the sticks, Bob Beevers converting to give the south West London side the lead.

Teddington's poor handling from the restart gifted the Twisters a scrum in an attacking position from the restart, spun into the centres with Tomek Tsang able to go over and continue his fine try scoring form, Uribe converting. It was Teddington to score next, the wet conditions leading to a number of knock ons which gave Harry Smith an opportunity to hit right back. Beevers converted, making it 14-10 in his side's favour within 15 minutes of play.

A little bit of push and pull followed, until an excellent steal from David Howe gave OPs some forward momentum leading to good territory, phases travelling across the gainline with Luis Gomez-Rose able to put his name on the scoresheet. Another two points for Uribe, before Beevers levelled the tie once again to make it 17-17 on the half hour.

The first half ended in somewhat chaotic fashion, Teddington receiving two yellow cards to see them down to thirteen men, a period which bore fruit for OPs - Tsang scoring again, shortly followed by Rory Gaffney's first try for the club as Priorians established a fourteen point lead the break.

A decidedly less frantic second half still yielded another 26 points, Carlos Gomez-Rose making inroads for OPRFC and breaking through after a tap and go penalty to score (unconverted). The wet conditions were always likely to lead to some messy play, a number of scrums following as keeping hold of the ball proved to be difficult for both sides.

Emmo Allen reduced the deficit for Teddington on the hour as they once again benefited from the set piece, the game falling into a calmer pattern before an explosive last five minutes that saw OPs score first via Matt Ilube, then Teddington in the final play through Jack Valentine to secure a try bonus point for the Antlers, 43-31 at full time.

Another high scoring affair for Old Priorians, who have now posted 150 points in their past three fixtures to give them a fighting chance of finishing within the top four of Regional 2 Thames for the first time since the 2022/23 season. They host Old Haberdashers' at Perivale next weekend.

OPRFC 43-31 TEDDINGTON

OPRFC 43

T : Tsang 2, L Gomez-Rose, Gaffney, C Gomez-Rose, Ilube

C : Uribe 4, Taylor

P : Uribe

TEDDINGTON 31

T : McKiernan, Smith, Allen, Valentine

C : Beevers 4

P : Beevers