High-flying Smiths made it 15 wins out of 15 in Counties 2 Gloucestershire North as they thumped closest rivals Old Patesians 35-3 at the Prince of Wales Stadium on Saturday.

They stretched their lead to 16 points at the top and are now strong favourites to win the title for a second time in three seasons.

“It was a really, really top performance, certainly our best of the season,” said club captain Ben Hawker. “We were good, it felt like we kicked on to a new level, everything came together.”

Smiths scored five tries but Hawker, who played the last 25 minutes after returning from a broken hand sustained against the Pats back in October, was just as pleased that they prevented the Pats from scoring a try.

“We’ve been working on our defence,” he said. “Our coach Ben Parker has been doing a lot of work on our tackling and the lads stopped them dead on Saturday.

“The defence was the foundation, but the attack went really well too. The scrum was strong and so was the lineout, we scored four maul tries.”

Smiths have enjoyed remarkable success over the past few years but although they’ve won league titles they’ve not gone through a league campaign unbeaten.

“That would be amazing,” continued Hawker, “but what I think we’ve done so well this season is to focus on every game.

“I can honestly say that no-one has voiced out loud about an unbeaten season.

“There are plenty of good sides in the league, we’ve had close games against Stroud and Hucclecote and both those teams will have thought they could have beaten us.”

Smiths are without a game this weekend but travel to fourth-placed Old Richians on Saturday 1^st February. Five of their last seven games are away – including a trip to third-placed Cheltenham North on Saturday 22^nd March – so there is certainly plenty to play for.

“It’s a good league,” said Hawker, who was talking to The Local Answer from the south of France where he was on a skiing holiday. “We know there is a lot of big rugby to play, a possible play-off, the Papa John’s, the Combination Cup.”

The play-off, should Smiths be involved, will see them take on the winners of Counties 2 Gloucestershire South for the one promotion place available.

Dings Crusaders 2nds, despite losing 24-19 at Frampton Cotterell on Saturday, are the favourites to win the South division. They have won 12 and drawn one of their 15 games.