It was all a bit of wing and a prayer for Rams at the Saintsbridge Sports Centre last Saturday as tries from both wings Josh Sunley, twice, and Olly Foxley along with fly half James Brooks boot proved Centralians undoing in a lively National 3 South West encounter.
And Brooks deserved full credit for not only the power of his boot but for playing at fly half for the first time this season, due to Luke Flowers injury, and in partnership with scrum half Will Clark making his first appearance of the campaign.
Prop Jack Steadman also started for the first time as did Jamie Guttridge in the No.8 shirt.
Two first half yellow cards for David Massey and Guttridge within quick succession didn't help Rams cause along the way as the much improved Centralians proved worthy adversaries and eager to extend their previously unbeaten league run to six games.
But, it was Rams ability to soak up the pressure and hit back with force, even when down to 13 men, and to cause the home side to make mistakes at crucial times that turned the tide in their favour.
As skipper Andy Amor said afterwards: “No side is going to come down here and have an easy victory. Their league position does them justice, they are a very hard side to break down and we're very pleased to get the win in the end.
“Every away game is always going to be difficult we just had to to stick to our patterns and do what we do best and trust in our abilities and, in the end, it came through and it was another win.”
Centralians kicked off with Rams playing down the slope for the opening 40 minutes half and it was certainly the visitors who made the livelier start.
With both Clark and Brooks slotting in comfortably together they were able to apply much of the early pressure only for the Rams own elementary mistakes to allow the home side off the hook.
Centralians, in turn, showed when running with the ball they could be dangerous while their heavyweight pack also showed what they could also do, at times, with ball in hand.
But it took almost the first half of this lively encounter before points appeared on the board.
With centre David Massey somewhat unlucky to be yellow carded for a bit of horse play off the ball a brawl erupted very shortly afterwards resulting in both Rams Jamie Guttridge and home centre Mike Mathers also taking a 10 minute break with Rams now down to 13 and Cents 14.
The home side taking full advantage to immediately win a penalty and go 3-0 in front from centre Sam Goatley's simple kick.
Rams, however, were able to reply immediately thanks to a pick-up from a lucky bounce for Joe Duffelen that allowed the full back to stretch his legs and find wing Josh Sunley who chipped ahead and beat the Cents cover to the ball and touch it down over the line.
Brooks brilliantly added the wide-angled conversion for a 7-3 lead with minutes of the half remaining in which time the home side lost their fly half Liam Hemming to a knee injury while Rams were restored to full compliment with Massey and Guttridge back on going into half time.
And Rams immediately put the home side under pressure from the second half kick-off and which reaped early rewards when Centralians coughed up a ball wide out with a pour pass and Sunley pounced to kick the ball on into the Cents in-goal and blast passed the remaining home defence to touchdown.
This time Brooks was unable to add the two points while, once again, almost immediately, the home side hit back when Rams conceded a penalty straying offside at a ruck and Goatley again kicked the points to reduce the deficit to six points, 6-12.
And, while it was nip and tuck for the next 20 minutes with the home side keeping their visitors in check, it was Rams who again extended their lead on 70 minutes when Brooks intercepted a poor pass in the home 22 to send wing Foxley scampering over in the left-hand corner and bring out another excellent conversion from Brooks to put his side 19-6 in front.
As Foxley said later: “It was nice to get a try today as I haven't scored since Bournemouth. I thought we did well, you can see from the other results they've had that it's a tough place to come.”
And Centralians certainly proved that as they never gave up and had the last say when, from a penalty and a drive to the Rams line, full back Rob Jones dabbed down only for Goatley to miss with his conversion.
Rams, however, comfortably saw out the final minutes to take their sixth scalp of the season from seven outings although, because of other results in the table, actually dropped to fourth place on the same points as Brixham with both Hornets and losing leaders Exmouth above them.
Just four points now separates the four with both Rams and Brixham having played a game less.
Saturday's match was certainly a great way for scrum half Will Clark to herald his arrival back in the Rams squad.
He said afterwards: “It's good to back and it was a really good win. Centralians have had a good run of results and so it was good to come in and not be a detriment to the team! Centralians worked really hard and around the breakdown they were really aggressive and made it really hard for us to get any go-forwards momentum.”
But as Rams tight-head prop James Baker pointed out: “They were strong boys they were quite bigger than us but maybe not stronger as they were carrying a bit of timber! Because of the slope I thought we were a bit more dominant in the first half and pushed them off the ball easier but second half they were up for it and getting their push on. I was slipping a few times and going backwards and it was hard to keep the scrum up but they didn't get any ball off us which I'm happy about.”
Rams now take on Old Patesians this Saturday at their Old Bath Road ground facility, 2-00pm.

Rams – Duffelen; Sunley, Bryans, Massey, Foxley; Brooks, Clark; Steadman, Henderson, Baker; Hughes, Bryson; Amor, Hopkins, Guttridge. Reps all used: Weller, Davies, Mann.

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