Gloucester Old Boys have hit the ground running this season and they made it a fantastic five when they defeated Widden Old Boys 38-18 on Saturday.

It’s a run of form that has unsurprisingly propelled them to the top of Counties 3 Gloucestershire North, a position they have occupied since their opening-day 94-0 demolition of Chosen Hill 2nds.

They have continued to pile up the points since that game – they’ve scored 239 so far – and front row Ben Thompson believes there is plenty more to come.

“There’s a real confidence in the squad,” the 32-year-old said. “We’ve had an influx of new players and a few former players have returned, things are looking good.”

They certainly are with this season’s blistering start a continuation of the form they produced for much of the previous campaign.

They were involved in a three-way shootout at the top of the league last season, just being pipped for promotion by Old Patesians and Stroud, and they also reached the final of the Papa John’s Counties 3 & Below Championship final at Twickenham, losing out narrowly to North Bristol.

They are determined to go one better in both competitions in 2023/24 with Thompson, who has been a first-teamer for 15 years, saying: “We want to go through the season undefeated.

“We want to win the title and we want to win the Papa John’s, that is a real goal of ours.”

Al Bryan has taken over as head coach this season and he is encouraging the club to play a more expansive game.

“Traditionally, we’ve always been a forwards-orientated side,” said Thompson, a former Churchdown School pupil and Hartpury University student who has been on the Gloucester Old Boys’ committee for the past 10 years. “Now we’re working more as a XV, getting the backs involved more.

“We’re still dominating up front but we’ve got a really good set of backs and we’re getting plenty of reward for our domination up front because we’re averaging 7.8 tries a game this season.”

Gloucester Old Boys, who are unbeaten in 16 home games stretching back to March 2022, are on their travels for their next game. They are at bottom-of-the-table Old Centralians 2nds on Saturday 14^th October.