Old Cryptians travel to Bredon Star for a Gloucestershire One clash tomorrow but their supporters may be forgiven if they have their minds elsewhere at least for some of the time.

That’s because the club are just two games away from Twickenham after their 42-15 South West Counties final win over Newquay Hornets six days ago.

It’s earned them a place in the South West Division final – they travel to Chipping Norton on Saturday 16th March – and if they win that, a place in the final of the RFU Junior Vase at the home of English rugby will be tantalisingly close.

“It really is fantastic, the cup run is amazing,” said Paul Vidgen, the club’s vice-chairman. “We’ve been building quite steadily towards this for four or five years.

“We’ve invested a lot of time and effort into our youth system and five or six of the players have come through into the first-team.”

They include Vidgen’s son Jerome, which is especially pleasing for his dad, a former hooker who played over 400 games for Old Cryptians, because he was one of the driving forces behind this youth set-up along with Duncan Normington.

“Now we’ve got another group of under-17s,” added Vidgen. “First-team player Jack Flounders is bringing them through.”

They’ve also invested in their Memorial Ground pitch at Tuffley Road with Vidgen saying: “Our chairman Martyn Langbridge is very astute, he’s a very good businessman. He is keen to make sure that not only do we retain our rugby club status, but ensure we can support all the activities within the club.”

Throw in the fact that the club regularly field three adult teams on a Saturday and have eight or so mini and junior teams playing on a Sunday and it’s clear that these are very good times for Old Cryptians.

Not that that has always been the case.

“We were in Gloucestershire Three three or four years ago,” said Vidgen. “James King, who was our coach for about five years, did a really good job to get us out of there and into Gloucestershire One and this season we’ve been really, really fortunate to acquire Jake McMahon.”

McMahon joined from Gordon League – his dad, Nigel, is chairman of the Gloucestershire Premier club – and he doubles up as a player as well as a head coach.

“He has been assisted all season by the backs player/coach Gavin Worrall who has added a different dimension to the backs play,” said Vidgen.

“And captain Chad Crosby has led from the front for much of this time and his enthusiasm and ambition are infectious.”

And as well as reaching the last eight of the Junior Vase, the club are very much in the hunt for promotion to Gloucestershire Premier because with five games remaining they are just five points off the second promotion spot which is currently occupied by Cheltenham North.

“If we win all of our games we could still go up,” said Vidgen. “The last day could be key because the leaders Ross-on-Wye are playing at Cheltenham North. If Ross can do us a favour, we can still do it.”

That final round of matches is on 13th April – Old Cryptians’ final game is at Dursley – but before that Old Cryptians must travel to Cheltenham North and then host third-placed Cirencester, who are ahead of Old Cryptians on points difference.

And while there are clearly some very tough games to come – Chipping Norton are top of the Berks/Bucks and Oxon Championship having won all 14 of their games – Vidgen says that Old Cryptians are up for both their league and cup challenges.

“We’re not prioritising as such but we are looking at squad rotation,” he said. “But that’s the beauty of it because we’ve got a lot of strength in a lot of areas.”

There’s also the North Gloucestershire Combination Cup to think about as well – those competitions get under way on Monday 1st April – so clearly it’s a great time to be a player at Old Cryptians.

Ask Vidgen if he wishes he was still playing and he says with a laugh: “Oh god, yes,” before adding, “but I’m 52 next month, I think I’m a bit old now!”

But while he can no longer play, he will certainly be supporting when the club travel to play a Chipping Norton side who have scored 150 points in their last two Junior Vase games.

“Chipping Norton look to be a decent side,” said Vidgen. “On paper they look good but Newquay Hornets looked good on paper and we took them to task.

“We’ll play our normal game, we’ll get the ball out wide. We’ve got quick wingers and big centres.”

And with so much at stake, it should be a great game.