Old Priorians ended their 2024/25 Regional 2 Thames campaign with a 40-12 win against Marlow, putting in a clinical performance in the second half to see off their Buckinghamshire hosts, winger James Paxman scoring a hat trick in the process.

OPs stretched into a 14-0 lead with less than ten minutes on the clock, Conor Dolan crashing over from short range before being involved once again to set up Paxman for his first of the afternoon, Michael Jobling converting both.

Marlow grew into the fixture and retain plenty of ball as well as territory, their tenacity finally paying off having putting the hands through the backs, the apparent gap in the Priorians defence duly punished just before the half hour mark to halve the deficit.

The home side saw a yellow card come their way in the later stages of the first half, but the Twisters were unable to take advantage, spurning chances to go over through both error and infringement, the scoreboard reading 14-7 at half time.

It was a nervy start to the second half with both teams defending well, with no real sign of cleave or fracture within the first twenty minutes, until a powerful Dolan break into the 22 fed Luis Gomez-Rose who did enough to go over in the corner on the hour, Jobling unable to put the extra two points between the posts.

This triggered a collapse of sorts by Marlow, starting with a try for Harry Lyons following a good carry by Gomez-Rose (68'), then Paxman after a searching run by Jobling (72'), the winger then going on to secure his third after an excellent run from 25 metres out to beat a number of his opposing numbers for a fine score (74').

The hosts did get a consolation try late on with some nice work from the forwards, but ended up well beaten with 40-12 the final score.

OPRFC will be delighted to have ended the season on this note and were decisive in attack to score 40 points or more for the fifth time in this campaign ; Marlow were not a complete pushover having dominated in the scrums for the bulk of the match, but weren't able to string anything particularly dynamic together in the backs despite showing signs of creativity.

OPs end the season in sixth, having accrued 66 points.

OPRFC SCORERS'

T : Dolan, Paxman 3, Gomez-Rose, Lyons

C : Jobling 5