Villanova caused one of the upsets of the season on Saturday, beating a previously undefeated St Pat’s side and will get a chance to do it again just four days later when they face St Laurence’s, the only remaining undefeated AIC side, on Tuesday evening.

Villanova will take plenty of confidence into the match after an impressive 25-22 win over Pat’s

“It was a good open game of rugby and another of those matches that could have gone either way. Fortunately when the full time whistle went, we were ahead on the scoreboard,” coach Paul Davey told Rugby News.

“Our boys probably had a bit more collective energy about them on Saturday and that made a big difference.

“We led for most of the match but Pat’s didn’t let us get away and hit back a handful of times to get stay a few points off the lead.

“We got out to an eight point lead late in the match and then tried to overplay our hand a little on an exit and gifted Pat’s a try out wide.

“That reduced our lead to three points with three minutes to go but we managed to control possession in the final moments and close out the game.”

After losing a tight one against Iona in round one, Villa have recorded two tight wins over Peter’s and Pat’s on either side of a 50-15 loss to Ashgrove.

“Our lesson from our loss to Ashgrove was that we maybe had as many opportunities to score as Ashgrove did but we didn’t execute and they made us pay for it,” the coach told Rugby News.

“Every time they had the chance to score points, they did, so if we can execute and perform at our best, I think we can match it with the best teams.

“The reality is, we can’t afford to miss a beat tomorrow night against Lauries if we are going to win the game.”

Lauries rested a number of players on Saturday but still had too much class for St Peter’s in an impressive 37-8 win.

“(Lauries coach) Welmar always has his side’s very well drilled at set piece so we know we’ll need to be sharp at scrum and line out time. They’re also very good over the ball so they are probably the three areas that we’ll need to focus on,” Davey said ahead of the midweek clash.

“I don’t think we can afford to hand over the ball to a side as good as Lauries so we’ll need to make sure our execution is right tomorrow night.”

Despite the short turnaround, Davey said his side will be close to full strength for Tuesday evening’s match. He thinks Villa can match it with the competition favourites and shake up the AIC competition, if they can execute over a 70 minute period.

“At this stage, we’re just taking it one game at a time but obviously, you always dare to dream. The reality for us now is that we need to win our remaining games to give ourselves a chance.

“The form of the competition seems to be holding up. We had a narrow loss to Iona and they had a narrow loss to Pat’s. Then we’ve just had a narrow win over Pat’s.

“If you draw a line through that form, you’d say that Lauries are entitled to be strong favourites against us but we’ve got a very good side and we’re confident that we’ll be right in it.”

Villanova and Lauries meet at Chipsy Woods Oval at 5:30pm on Tuesday evening ahead of the QLD Schools trials this weekend.