Old Priorians' season came to an end with defeat against Belsize Park at Grasshoppers on Saturday afternoon, losing 43-29 as the clinical visitors advanced to the next round of the playoffs.

OPs had a dream start, with Belsize kicking the ball out on the full to present an attacking opportunity in the opening minutes ; a deft grubber through by Will Taylor was well chased down by Jared Braddock who did enough to get over the line and open the scoring, Taylor converting for an early 7-0 lead. Belsize were immediate in their response, forcing a penalty which was kicked deep into the 22 with the following catch and drive resulting in a converted try.

The game took a little while to settle into some sort of holding pattern, the pendulum swinging back in OPs favour as they looked to break through the defensive line. They were finding luck through centres Josh Chippendale and Barney Morris and worked their way into dangerous territory, a penalty forced with Taylor elected to kick for goal, an ultimately succesful attempt that established a three point advantage.

An excellent restart by Belsize Park caused consternation in the OPRFC ranks and a knock on gave the central London club a scrum set-piece, from which the ball went wide and was well finished in the corner, the touchline conversion equally impressive as the visitors went ahead for the first time in the match, the first quarter of the match done and dusted.

As was the case against Harpenden in last week's fixture, handling errors began to creep into otherwise promising moves for the Twisters, handing possession back to Belsize who once again capitalised from the scrum, a kick through well gathered and then put out to the wing again as the lead extended to nine points ; mounting pressure and more slack hands meant OPs couldn't really get out of their own 22 and Park got their fourth of the day just after the half hour, a short range tap going in under the posts with no real defence in sight.

With the tie potentially getting away from Priorians, it was important that they had the next score, duly delivered by Timmy Oyinlola as another clever grubber through was expertly gathered by the strong and pacy winger to get his fifth for the 1st XV this season, the difficult conversion unconverted. There was still time for Belsize to come back and looked likely to go over again, but sturdy tackling and an eventual turnover meant OPs were able to keep the score to 26-15 at half time.

The Twisters started the second half well but once again were hoisted by their own petard through yet more dropped passes. Belsize were able to maul forward a good 20 metres before yet another kick through was taken into possession for a try, going unconverted but Park very much in control, adding another minutes later with the poorly organised OPs not able to stop their promotion rivals.

With plenty of time left on the clock hope may well have sprung eternal for Old Priorians, the glimmer of a comeback boosted by Mishka Fibbens' short range effort on 55 minutes after a fantastic break into the 22 by winger James Paxman, crucially converted by Taylor to reduce arrears to 16 points at 38-22.

And yet, the sense of an impending Belsize victory was always feeling likely, confirmed by a well taken try with a little less than a quarter of an hour left, dancing through the defence with the ball having been hooked against the head ; enough on the clock for OPs to mount something, but perhaps a bridge too far given the flow of the game.

So it proved to be - Cathal Sheehan secured his 18th try of the season in the dying stages, set up by a scintillating 40 metre burst by Morris, to put sheen on the scoreline but ultimately this was defeat for Old Priorians, 43-29 the final score.

By no means a limp performance, this was a simple case of allowing Belsize the platform for opportunity which they took with aplomb time after time ; the full time result suggests a degree of dominance when in reality it was a case of making chances count, with OPs needing to have eliminated mistakes in the second half to have any realistic chance of winning.

This ends the season for both the 1st XV and the club as a whole, with the Twisters once again competing in Regional 2 Thames for the 2026/27 season.

OPRFC SCORERS

T : Braddock, Oyinlola, Fibbens, Sheehan

C : Taylor 3

P : Taylor