After losing 15-7 to their near neighbours from just four miles away last November, the home side more than made up for it with a six-try success.

In the process, Cryptians moved up a place to fifth in Gloucester One, and stretched the gap between themselves and seventh side Richians to nine points.

The scoring began after just nine minutes when the home side rumbled over the whitewash from a catch-and-drive lineout with number eight Matt Hurdle emerging as the try scorer.

Stand-off Marc Blackford could not improve, leaving it 5-0.

The next score did not arrive until 37 minutes had gone, with loosehead prop James King crossing the whitewash, and Blackford again failing to hit the target, for 10-0.

However, after waiting so long for their second score, the third arrived just a minute later, when Cryptians took a lineout on Richians' 22 and the ball was passed down the backline where Hurdle was lurking and he smashed through the tackles to score his second, and Blackford once again failed to split the posts, making it 15-0, which is how it remained until the break.

With such dominance up front, Cryptians only had to wait four second-half minutes for their bonus-point score, which was reminiscent of their opening try, after it came courtesy of another powerful catch-and-drive lineout.

This time, a change of kicker to full-back Ash Bawden resulted in a change of outcome as the extras were successfully added for a 22-0 lead.

Richians did finally gain a foothold in the match on 55 minutes when elusive right wing Nicky Godsall returned a poor clearance kick with interest, and went all the way around the outside of the defence to squirt down the sideline and score their only points of the contest.

Scrum-half Max Hall showed Cryptians how to kick with a successful conversion to cut it to 22-7.

The match then took an ugly turn when a flurry of cards was dished out just after the hour mark.

First came a yellow for Richians’ lock Jack Walker before a red was flashed to former Gloucester and Lydney prop Andy Jarrett three minutes later for violent play.

Cryptians took full advantage by scoring their fifth try, which was unconverted, to make it 27-7.

Straight from the restart, number six arrived, when Cryptians broke down the left-hand touchline and passed back inside for another quick-fire score under the posts on 67 minutes.

The conversion was a formality to extend the advantage further to 34-7.

With two minutes left, Cryptians’ number eight Hurdle broke off the back of a scrum and bashed all the way over to score his hat-trick try, with the extras easily added by inside centre Owen Barton, to round off the impressive win.

To make matters worse for Richians, they had a late chance to claw back a further consolation when they kicked a penalty into the corner for a five-metre lineout, but strong defence rebuffed them.

Old Cryptians: Ash Bawden; Gareth Flounders, Brad Overthrow, Owen Barton, Dan Vicary; Marc Blackford, Luke Stephens; James King, James Weaver, James Pugh; Ryan Dunne, Chris Kent; Luke Thomson, Chad Crosby (captain), Matt Hurdle. Replacements: Craig McGrigor, Marc Stubbs, Rich Langbridge.

Old Richians: Dan Jenkins; Ross Wheeler, Ben Meloscia, Ryan Tanner, Nick Godsall; Dave Barley, Max Hall; Luke Carr, Darren Nolloth, Andy Jarrett; Tony Cox, Jack Walker; Ian Galbraith, Dale Cooper, Shaun O'Neill. Replacements: Paul Smith, Dan Collins, Ewan Jones.

Old Cryptians RFC

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