‘It was another brilliant game’ said Rams Students manager Nick Ede after his side raced to a 43-13 triumph at Old Bath Road.
While the visitors took an early lead through a converted Matthew Ng try, Rams replied with first-half scores from Josh Ede, Harrison Stanners, Steven Webber and Seb Rushton, Cameron George adding the extras to two for 24-7.
Jacob Watkins and Alfie Jeanes extended the lead with another conversion making it 36-7, only for Freddie Skinner to go over for the visitors, Ed Bailey again on target.
Man-of-the-match Jedd Paine grabbed the last try of the contest, George with his fourth conversion, to set the seal on a fine home performance and another excellent contest.
Ede said: “It was another brilliant game which I guess we were expecting, but you’re never completely sure.
“I said to the lads it’s a credit to the Colts coaching the fact they’ve all come through that pathway and all played a similar style of rugby – it means you can bring different age groups together and they do it, although the off-loads at the start were maybe taking it a step too far in the first 10 minutes.
“They vaguely know each other depending what age groups they were in and they seem to read each other’s minds, but I can’t speak highly enough about the coaching in juniors and Colts which helps bring all that together.”
While Paine was at the heart of much of the hosts’ good work, his fellow title-winning Centaurs including Dan Bennett, Harry Etwell, George, Will Young and more came to the fore.
Ede continued: “It’s great to have a handful who have been playing together all season and it adds even more continuity, which became clearer after the first 20 minutes once they settled down a bit.
“All credit to Chinnor who kept going right to the end – it’s a great fixture and it was lovely to have them over here.
“They came back at us in the second half and while we managed to hold them off scoring too many tries, it could have been a different story.”
“It gets frustrating when you’re trying to get them all together, but it’s absolutely worth it in the end and a big thank you to all the players who wanted to play – we’ll look forward to two more games next year.”
By Richard Ashton
