It will be a big day for Old Patesians Rugby Club on Sunday when their impressive Colts team host Olney in the RFU National Knockout Cup.

At stake is a place in the last eight of what is obviously a very prestigious competition and the Pats are hoping plenty of supporters turn up to cheer them on at Everest Road.

The match kicks off at 2pm and Alistair Armstrong, who is chairman of the junior section at Old Pats, said: “It should be an excellent day. We’ve got a really great bunch of lads, they’re really looking forward to it and they deserve everything they get.”

Not that Olney will be pushovers, far from it. The RFU National Knockout Cup is for invited teams only, so all teams have to be of a certain standard.

“We played in the competition last season, we reached the third round,” said Armstrong. “Clubs have to apply to play in it, there is no guarantee of playing every year and there are no easy teams.”

The Pats have traditionally been strong at Colts level, which is for under-17s and under-18s, and last season won the County Colts Cup.

“We’ve got so many youngsters in our junior set-up – 350 to 400 – and they feed naturally into the Colts,” continued Armstrong, who has been chairman of the juniors for four years.

“Our ethos is to play mixed ability teams in the juniors, we don’t have ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams.”

And it’s an ethos that certainly seems to be working if the success of the club’s current Colts side is anything to go by.

They’ve already won one more match in the RFU National Knockout Cup than they managed last season after overcoming Royal Wootton Bassett, Ledbury and Longlevens, and Armstrong is full of praise for head coach David Jones.

“This is his first season as Colts coach,” said Armstrong. “He’s previously been head coach all the way through from under-9s.”

Both Jones and Armstrong have sons in the current Colts set-up – Ethan Jones is a prop and Ollie Armstrong is a second row.

The Pats will be captained by Cam Blaxhill on Sunday and while they have home advantage, they won’t have it all their own way when it comes to vocal support.

“Olney are bringing a coachload of supporters,” said Armstrong. “We’re really hoping for a decent crowd.”