RAMS are back on top of National League One after their 43-21 victory at Darlington Mowden Park last Saturday. Their 15th win in 17 games lifted them above Sale FC with a game in hand.

A remarkable seven-minute burst towards the end of the first quarter saw them surge 28-0 upon the back of converted tries from London Irish loanees Tarek Haffar and Ollie Allan, alongside two from Axel Kalling-Smith.

The final one was a try-of-the-season contender as James McRae’s lengthy break was followed by a pin-point cross-field kick from Alex Seers, but having wrapped up the bonus-point, Rams let the hosts back into the contest with a quick-fire double from Chris McTurk and Henry Hadfield. Matt Minogue added the extras to both, but Seers crossed for a 33-14 half-time lead.

Connor Hayhow went over to increase Rams’ advantage, and while Callum Pascoe dotted down for Darlinton, Jak Rossiter provided the final score of an entertaining afternoon.
Reflecting on his side’s opening assault, Director of Rugby Seb Reynolds commented: “It was very impressive. It was nice coming here, a magnificent stadium, good atmosphere, a good surface to play on and both teams wanting to play rugby – the first half-hour produced a roller-coaster of a game.

“I thought we established a good platform with very good defensive sets and at the set-piece, and then we got on the attack and took the game away from them quite early. But then we took our foot off the pedal a little, fell off a few tackles and lost our defensive shape.

“We made a few silly decisions, and it gave DMP the front foot and they came back well.”
He continued: “Overall, it was a really good performance and we probably played some of our best go-forward rugby of the season in patches. We couldn’t sustain it for the full 80 minutes because we switched off in parts, but we also had a quality opposition who played some good rugby."

This Friday, Rams host ninth-placed Chinnor under lights at the Old Bath Road ground (7.45pm). With a large crowd expected, supporters are asked to book their tickets in advance through the club’s website – www.ramsrugby.com and then click the ticket office at the top of the page.