Report by Ollie James
Photos courtesy of Paul Clark, S2s Photography and Tim Pitfield Photography

Rams Director of Rugby Seb Reynolds praised his side saying, “it was a really good team performance”. “I thought it was a good game. Firstly, I thought Hull played some really good rugby today, they retained possession well in the first half and put us under a large amount of pressure. We had to have a very professional mindset from early on, we created a solid platform to attack from and I thought we played some really good rugby ourselves. With spells in the first and the second half we were able to retain the ball and we scored some really well executed tries.”
Jak Rossiter and Tom Vooght score twice as Rams RFC keep the pressure on the league leaders Richmond following a bonus point win over struggling Hull Ionians.

Rams travelled to Hull Ionians in Round 20 of the National League season determined to react to their previous week’s loss at home to Richmond Rams wasted no time applying their dominance in the first half. They were clinical from the off as their powerful set piece and driving maul provided a solid platform for Rams’ three first half tries.

The men from Reading connected the forward effort with some superb back play which was orchestrated by fly half an ex Hull Ionian Andrew Humberstone and the magnificent pace out wide with both wingers a true threat to the home side’s defence.

The first try came on the 7-minute mark as some great passing and spacial awareness resulted in Jak Rossiter claiming the first try of the afternoon. Will Partington started off his kicking spectacle with his first 2 points of the game from his right boot. Rams extended their lead to 14 points as their powerful forward pack showed its dominance at the set piece eventually causing the referee to blow up for a penalty try and brandish a yellow card reducing Ionians to 14 men. Eight minutes later Rams secured their own line-out on the hosts 5 metre line; Ben Henderson perfectly delivered the ball to enable his pack to drive over the whitewash and score, with Number 7 and captain Tom Vooght claiming the try.

At the 30th minute the hosts went through the phases in Rams’ territory before Jack Colbourne squeezed over the line to score. The conversion was unsuccessful by Lewis Minikin.

At half time Rams went into the changing room with a 19-5 lead.

At the 48th minute Jak Rossiter was part of a piercing switch move between himself and Will Partington. The flying winger used his exceptionally quick feet to step multiple Hull Ionians defenders to score under the posts. This score meant Jak Rossiter achieved his 50th National league try milestone for Rams. The conversion by Will Partington was successful and it extended Rams’ lead to 26-8.

Hull Ionians didn’t allow Rams to have everything their own way over the course of the game, producing a determined second half performance putting their opponents under constant pressure. However, their cause wasn’t helped by going down to 14 men for multiple times during the game, three cards being brandished out of the referee’s pocket. Hull Ionians responded by scoring a try through the hands of their dangerous Number 12, Moses Liwaliwa. Tom Stephenson added the extras to the score board.

Rams regathered the momentum and from a dominant scrum Tom Vooght powered over the line and underneath the posts to score. Will Partington added the extras. The penultimate point of the game came from Kieran Leicester as he made an excellent break just outside the hosts 22 metre dotting the ball over the try line for the last play of the game. This was a well-executed victory, winning 40 points to 13, against a side that, despite being are at the bottom half of National One, showed tremendous courage and no little ability to challenge with ball in hand.

Rams, who remain in 2nd position in National One, now look forward to this week’s exciting prospect of playing Blackheath for the first time at Old Bath Road. Seb Reynolds said of his side’s forthcoming home fixture “Blackheath are very good side and are at the upper tiers of English rugby for a reason. As a team they are very dangerous, they did a good job against us when we played them away. We’ll have to have a look this week and see how we are going to prepare. There are no easy games at this level and Blackheath are a quality outfit, so it should be an exciting fixture at Old Bath Road on Saturday.”

Teams

Hull Ionians:
Astley, Waqadu, Minikin, Liwaliwa, Colbourne, Stephenson T, Crane, Laverick, Stephenson B, Bell, Makin, Heelas, Mewburn, Sanderson, Brown

Replacements: Peace, Butler, Choudhury, Fummo, Titchener

Rams:
Partington, Rossiter, Byrant, Hayhow, Corrigan, Humberstone, Moates, Kidd, Henderson, Zeiss, Taylor, Guttridge, Collis, Vooght, Crame

Replacements: Moffit, Steadman, Ellaboudy, Leicester, Sparkes

Referee: Tim Allatt
Attendance: 375