A young OEs (Old Elthamians) team was seeking to build on strong recent from which saw them run league leaders Richmond close in a 7-9 home defeat on Saturday 15th February and then secure a 6-26 away win at Hull Ionians last Saturday. But despite huge endeavour the hosts were unable to withstand the relentless pressure from their visitors.

OEs opened the scoring on the 4th minute with a well struck penalty from fly-half Hilton Gibbons. Rams hit back in their usual powerful style and a trademark driving maul resulted in a penalty try on the 12th minute when referee Neil Chivers deemed that it had been brought to ground illegally. Rams extended their lead on the 21st minute when a superbly judged kick from full back Will Partington gave scrumhalf Ollie Cole the opportunity to pounce on the ball for his side’s second try of the afternoon. Fly-half Alex Seers was unable to add the extras and the score moved to 5-12 to Rams.

Rams continued to pound the OEs line but it was the home side that scored the final points of the 1st half when skipper Hamish Barton finished a move started from a penetrating run from the outstanding Dominic McGeekie. Gibbons was on target with the conversion and the 1st half ended 10-12 to Rams.

The 2nd half belonged to the men from Reading. Top try scorer Jak Rossiter dotted down on the 42nd minute and Seers added the extras. OEs tighthead prop Austin Hay finished the home team’s best passage of play of the afternoon on the 51st minute when he crashed over after multiple phases and the accurate Gibbons was on target with the conversion. But the London team couldn’t halt the Rams pack which was in the ascendency for the last quarter and provided a platform for man of the match Tom Vooght to score on the 64th minute and Connor Hayhow to score in the dying seconds as the big centre shrugged off two tacklers to dot-down in the corner. Seb Reynolds was pleased with his sides performance, but he also paid tribute to his opposition “Fair play to OEs, they’ve had a lot of disruption in the past couple of months after losing their main sponsor but Gavin [Gavin Latch – OEs DoR] has done a good job bringing some youngsters through and they got a great result last week and they played well today, so I am delighted that we responded to the challenge and got a win”. When asked about his sides recent 5 point deduction for an administrative error the Rams DoR shrugged his shoulders saying “As a group of players we don’t spend much time dwelling on negatives, whether they are of our own creating or something that is beyond our control. I think the best response that we could have delivered after getting this news was to win, and we got 5 points against Rotherham last week, and 5 points against OEs today, that’s a credit to the mental toughness of this squad”.

This Saturday Rams travel to Gloucester to play a rearranged fixture against old rivals Cinderford, a challenge which Reynolds recognises “The Forest of Dean is passionate about the game and Cinderford are a powerful side that show off all the best traditions of Gloucestershire rugby. Not many sides win there so we will have to be at our best to get anything from the match”.