Tries from Tom Vooght and Steven Bryant give Redingensians Rams their first victory of 2017 with a 7-14 score away at Barnstaple. Wading through the hosts’ mud-soaked stomping ground, the OBR visitors found their footing with relentless defensive play and a solid pressure in attack.

It also helped that Barnstaple fluffed a few of their penalty chances. Isaac Hydleman’s opportunity to put something substantial between the posts fell short following Barnstaple’s decimation of the first scrum of the game.

Instead it was Rams to put the first points on the board; Phil Hoy and Ollie Taylor championed lineouts against their opposing try line, showing off their dangerous ruck game and giving skipper Tom Vooght a try in the left-hand corner during the 9th minute. Jacob Atkins picked up the extras in a tricky conversion from the side line.

Barnstaple got given another go at Rams’ posts a few minutes later. Taken by Jordan Petherbridge from a more favourable position, the home crowd were disappointed to see this sent off-kilter as well.

The Reading men did well to contain Barnstaple’s considerable offensive efforts; runs from depth, quick support in the rucks, and mauls that made metres on the right sort of ground. Colin Thompson and Jack Steadman kept centre-field on a strict lockdown while Conor Corrigan, Steven Bryant and Jak Rossiter cleaned up any offenders down the side-lines. At one point Rossiter’s tackle sent his opposing number sprawling metres backwards.

Sam Guttridge, and later Ollie Foxley, put in fantastic work at 15, being subjected to a kicking back-and-forth under a pressured Barnstaple defence. Rams made their threat to Barum’s try line clear; often opting to attack wide and only narrowly missing out to unfortunate fumbles or a stubborn Barnstaple defensive line.

Having had ample opportunity to widen their lead, it came as quite a surprise to Rams’ supporters to go into half time with a square score line. After losing 10 metres to a rampaging Barnstaple maul, they conceded to James Bath, who scored for Barum after an expertly executed dummy pass into an easy overlap in Rams’ centre field. Petherbridge found the posts for 7-7 on the whistle, his 100th completed conversion for the team.

Rams looked on considerably worse form after the interval. Having let the hosts back into the game, they went 20 minutes without making a dent in Barum’s set piece and suffered greatly against Barnstaple’s march through the marsh of their home ground.

The home side set a 0/3 record for penalty kicks in the 63rd minute. With a much more dominant hold on possession, they’d spent some time pressed against Rams’ try line. Ben Henderson turned the tide, finding a turnover in a Barnstaple maul and leading a counterattack against a rejuvenated opposition.

The final 10 minutes proved more fortunate for Rams. Sean McDonnell-Roberts had a maul-over try disallowed but gave Rams the penalty they needed to take the point lead. With 4 minutes left on the clock, Tom Vooght made the decision to go for the try line instead of the posts, giving Steve Bryant (or Ben Henderson, depending on who you ask) the maul-over winning try of the game. Atkins won the conversion for a final whistle of 7-14 to Rams.

Next week Rams return to OBR for their second seasonal meeting with Exmouth.

Report by Matt McCrory
Photo by Tim Pitfield

Redingensians Rams:

15 - Sam Guttridge
14 - Jak Rossiter
13 - Steve Bryant
12 - Dan Barnes
11 - Conor Corrigan
10 - Jacob Atkins
9 - Greg Illingworth
1 - Jack Steadman
2 - Ben Henderson
3 - Sean McDonnell-Roberts
4 - Phil Hoy
5 - Colin Thompson
6 - Ollie Taylor
7 - Tom Vooght (c)
8 - Ross Crame

Replacements:
16 - Kieran Ball
17 - Antony Marris
18 - Andrew Amor
19 - Craig Nightengale
20 - Ollie Foxley

Barnstaple:

15 - Isaac Hydleman
14 - Will Topps
13 - Jake Murphy
12 - Ryan Carter
11 - Linford Brock
10 - Jordan Petherbridge
9 - James Bath
1 - Kevin Angell
2 - James Starkey
3 - Rob Dugard
4 - Bryn Jenkins
5 - Ben Hilton
6 - Matt Hague
7 - Nathaniel Bayet
8 - Matt Gohl

Replacements:
16 - Mark Berry
17 - Ashlee Crouch
18 - Oli Mason
19 - Kyle Speare
20 - Luke Berry