Old Priorians were dramatically beaten by Belsize Park on Saturday afternoon at Perivale, as the visitors scored a last minute try to snatch a dramatic victory and pull of an impressive comeback.

The Twisters had dominated the first half and went into the break with a healthy 17-0 lead, thanks to a second minute try from Mishka Fibbens, followed by one for Rory Gaffney with a quarter of the game played, set up by Cathal Sheehan after Raphael Mutu's excellent offload ; Will Taylor added two conversions and a penalty.

Belsize came out with renewed vigour for the second half and were near immediate in their response, capitalising on disorder in the OPs backline to kick into the 22, reclaim the ball and then go wide to score. Beginning to break the line more, they got another in similar fashion with 53 minutes gone, though both conversions went wide.

With the momentum now appearing to be with Belsize, Priorians were happy to push their noses further out in front with an hour played, Pierre Goualin reacting quickly to some poor hands to scoop up a loose ball and finish under the posts, Taylor's conversion making it 24-10.

An increased penalty as the match went on was beginning to cause OPRFC problems, from which Belsize Park bore fruit ; beginning to kick deep into the home 22, the early season pacesetters were patient in their approach to cross the line and were rewarded with a try with 15 minutes to go to reduce arrears to seven points.

Taylor put his side two scores up with a very well taken penalty kick on 70 minutes, but this preceded a remarkable ten minutes where Belsize took control of the match. The Twisters conceded penalty after penalty - some, perhaps, in a dubious fashion - and Belsize were able to repeat their trick in the 75th minute and then most crucially, found the line in the final minute to put themselves ahead at 31-27.

There was enough time for Priorians to reclaim the ball from the restart and advance into opposition 22, only for a final pass to not go to hand and end a dramatic 80 minutes - the consenus being that OPs snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, playing the better rugby for the most part and simply allowing an underpowered Belsize Park to take their chances, often presented on a plate through indiscipline.

The Twisters take a losing bonus point from the fixture and will face Marlow away next Saturday.

OPRFC SCORERS

T : Fibbens, Gaffney, Goualin

C : Taylor 3

P : Taylor 2