Thornbury blew away the close season cobwebs with a comfortable win over Old Bristolians in the first senior match played on the new rugby pitch at The Chantry.

Last season’s leading try scorer Alfie Richardson took only two minutes to register his first score of the new season after good passing in midfield created space for the fullback to score. Jack Pinker converted. Richardson scored again 10 minutes later and Max Harper had a good try ruled out when he grounded the ball from a driving lineout, the referee adjudging the ball held up.

Trailing 12-0 Old Bristolians opened their account with a fine unconverted try by their wing. Then George Jackson, who had re-joined the club, burst away from a breakdown but Thorns were penalised close to the Old Bristolians’ line, then newcomer Joel Bezus crashed over but again the ball was adjudged held up, before Jay Burley scored close to half time. Thorns led 17-5 at the break.

Old Bs were the first to score in the second half with a converted try from a charged down goal-line clearance. At 17-12 it was game on but Thorns responded immediately and Ben Phillips scored from a quickly-taken penalty. Three minutes later Gez Asante blasted his way through several tacklers to score a memorable try. Jake Wood converted and at 29-12 the game looked in the bag.

In the last quarter Fin MacLeod showed good feet to confuse the covering defence to score Thorns’ sixth try then the Old Bristolians wing scored another converted try.

The biggest cheer came when teenager Jack Oakey raced down the line to touch down in the corner only for the try to be disallowed for a foot in touch. What a debut that would have been. But Thorns were not to be denied and in last play Jack Pickles intercepted on his own ‘22’ and out-stretched the defence to acrobatically score. The try wasn’t converted and the final whistle blew for Thorns’ 39-19 win.

There were many positives to take from the game, but also plenty of areas to work on. The players have a conditioning training match at Hartpury College on Thursday and then begin their league campaign at home to Chosen Hill on September 3.