Ross warmed up for next Saturday's table-topping game against Old Cryptians with a crushing 74-8 victory against Glos All Blues, which took their unbeaten start to the season to six games.

The result puts Ross third in the table, two points behind leaders Cryptians.

With the sun on their backs and a firm surface Ross were keen to move the ball at every opportunity and this proved, time after time, to be too much for a dogged All Blues defence. Within 20 minutes Ross had established a firm hold on the game with two tries from fly half Huw Bellamy and one from flanker Ollie Floyd, with Dan Field converting two of the scores, Ross were 19-0 ahead halfway through the first half.

As has been the case in every game so far, the front five provided a strong platform for Ross to play off, delivering quality set piece ball throughout the game. This impressive display from the front five, enabled the back row and the backs plenty of ball and with superior ball skills Ross made the visitors pay with tries coming at regular intervals. Don't think for one minute that the visitors laid down and let Ross roll them over, quite the contrary, their tackling was sound and they were strong on the ball.

However in open play Ross's ball skills, running lines and offloading in the tackle made it impossible for All Blues to hold back the tide, tries from Gareth Holdsworth, Craig Smith, Gavin Oates, Ali Rees, Chris Thomas, Tom Harris and another brace for Huw Bellamy, taking his own try tally to four, kept the scoreboard ticking over, and by the time the referee had blown the final whistle Ross had run out convincing 74-8 victors.

Sponsor Maggie Pearce's man of the match, in memory of husband Malcolm Pearce, was Huw Bellamy.

Next Saturday Ross are away to Old Cryptians a 3pm kick off.

While the Ross RFC 1st team hammered Gloucester All Blues, the 2nd team suffered a similar score line in their merit table league game, losing 75-0 against a strong Bourneville team, who already look favourites to win the league.

It was nearly all one way traffic with Ross rarely threatening and having to resprt to strong defensive work. The first half saw a feast of tries for Bourneville, but Ross stepped up to the pace in the second half with some noted tackling from centres Pete Jarvis and Jordan Marshall.

Flankers Josh Brett and Ian Davies covered a lot of ground in an attempt to thwart Bourneville's attack and the whole Ross team never gave in despite the score line.

The Drop Inn man of the match was Steve White at No. 8.

This week Ross 2nds are at home to Evesham, 3.00pm kick off at Greytree.

For more stories in full please see this week's Ross Gazette.