Fightback too late as Rams suffer back-to-back defeats

DIRECTOR of rugby Seb Reynolds urged his young Rams team to become more fearless following their 36-29 National Division 1 setback at Bishop’s Stortford last Saturday, writes Richard Ashton.

The visitors made a good start as Mike Cooke converted Morgan MacRae’s early opener, only for Stortford to respond with Asa Stewart-Harris and Frazier Kiff seven-pointers.

A Rams penalty try, which saw the latter yellow carded for a trip on Axel Kalling-Smith, levelled things before the hosts took control.

Jake Morris and Isaac Bell crossed before the break, Tom Hitchcock shortly after, and with Finn Keylock adding two more conversions, it was 33-14.

The visitors hit back admirably, however, two tries in three minutes from Andrew Lamb and Pete Austin making it game on at the end of the third quarter.

Yet the sting came out of the visitors, Keylock landing a 45m penalty, and despite MacRae’s final-play second, they had to settle for two bonus points and a second straight defeat.

Reynolds was candid after the game and admitted: “It was a fantastic fightback, but I feel we pulled the lever on ourselves.

“We’d got back into it playing a certain style with sharp, dangerous attacks, but we reverted to a conservative format which didn’t work out.

“It’s one of those things, though, and this young group will learn from it because when we play the way we want to, it can be devastating.

“The guys need to believe in themselves more. The way we want to play there are going to be errors, but we’re not going to shout at them, and we want them to have no fear.

“As a collective we couldn’t get the job done, but in the future we will. Bishop’s Stortford deserved the victory — they fought incredibly hard and it meant a lot to them after the run they’ve had.

“Their attack was very good and the 12 (Hitchcock) was excellent getting over the gain-line and as a decoy runner out the back.

“From our side we dropped off a few tackles which let them into the game — there were three for the try at the second half — and they capitalised.

“It was frustrating because we started so well with the try, made a huge first defensive set, but then they came back and got control of the breakdown.

“We spoke at half-time about if we could get front-foot ball we’d be in a good spot, and as our tempo and conditioning came into effect, we showed that. Unfortunately, then we moved away from that, but we’ll learn.”

Reynolds admitted to “no excuses” about the late disruption which saw back three pair Luke Graham and Zach Clow withdrawing, instead focusing on Max Marshall’s debut at prop and the value of the whole squad.

He ended: “Max came on with James Baker and did a fantastic job — we’re always looking to generate options in all positions and credit to him.

“Lamby stepped up and had a good game and Liam Elston off the bench was also strong. And after a couple of weeks not scoring many tries, it was nice to get a few even in defeat.”

Rams host Plymouth Albion tomorrow (Saturday), kick-off 3pm.