Old Patesians’ progressive youngsters are eyeing a clean sweep at this year’s County Cup finals day.

They have teams in the under-14, under-15 and under-16 finals which will all take place at Hartpury on Sunday 30th April.

The club won the under-16 final last year and were runners-up in the under-13 and under-15 finals but are hoping to do even better this time around.

The under-16s face Clifton in the final, the under-15s will play Matson and the under-14s will tackle Clifton.

An upbeat Matt Cape, chairman of the junior section, said: “It’s a great reflection on all the hard work put in by the players and coaches.”

Significant though the achievement is – and Cape helps coach the under-16s for whom his son Stan is a hooker – winning games and securing trophies at this level is not the driving force at the club.

Cape explains: “We have an ethos at the club which is about developing the young players. We want them to have fun. We have more than one team at all the age groups but we select mixed ability teams in the early years because we believe in participation for everyone.

“Only at the later age groups do we start to select players based on ability when they develop at a different pace.

“We want everyone to have game time, everyone to feel involved. Kids are recognised for their attendance and attitude as well as their ability.”

The number of young people turning up on a Sunday morning to play rugby at Old Pats would certainly back up the belief that the culture is spot on at the club.

Cape reckons about 200 to 250 attend Chris Raymond’s tag rugby sessions for four to eight-year-olds and then a further 400 are part of the set-up which takes the youngsters from the under-9s through to under-19s.

The under-9s is when they experience full contact for the first time under the watchful eye of head coach Matt Dawson.

Rugby, like all sports, could do with more players and Cape added: “Our job is to make sure that the kids coming through the door at eight or any other age are still playing rugby by the time they are 18.

“It’s about providing a pathway into first-team rugby. If you watch our first team today, two-thirds of them have come through the junior set-up and that’s something that we’re proud of.

“We have ex-Old Pats junior players at Gloucester and Bristol and another recently played for England Counties.”

The chances of keeping kids involved in rugby are improved by teams enjoying success and the club’s job will be made that bit easier if one, two or all three of the club’s teams triumph at the annual end-of-season extravaganza. But it will have been another excellent season for the Pats juniors whatever the outcome on Sunday.

If the under-16s are successful it will be the fifth time that the club have triumphed in this age group.

They are coached by former Gloucester second row Rob Fidler, whose son Ben plays at blindside. “We’re very lucky,” said Cape, a former first-team tighthead prop with Pats, “we’ve got a cracking side and most of them have been together since they were eight. Eight of the boys are in the Gloucester Academy and nine more play at district level.”

They will be sharing centre stage on the big day with the under-15s, coached by Simon Daws, and the under-14s, who are coached by Andy Park.

Any success these teams enjoy will follow the achievement of the under-12s, who won the area Land Rover Cup earlier this season, and as a reward will be on parade before the Aviva Premiership final at Twickenham at the end of the season.

They in turn will follow in the footsteps of the under-10s who were invited to play at Twickenham during the Autumn international period.

These are, indeed, happy days for the youngsters at Old Pats.