CAPTAIN Robbie Stapley celebrated the birth of his second child in the morning by scoring a stunning hat-trick as Rams won a brilliant derby 38-22 at home to Chinnor.
Under the Friday Night Lights, the two old rivals produced yet another classic to add to their storied history, sharing nine tries in an entertaining contest at Old Bath Road.
It was the home side who made the initial breakthrough, hooker Ben Henderson throwing a dummy and showing a change of pace any fly-half would have been proud of to race over from the edge of the Chinnor 22.
Drew Humberstone landed a regulation conversion, and after James Bourton missed a chance to reduce the deficit by pulling a penalty wide, Rams moved further ahead when Stapley opened his account by touching down at the back of a rolling maul.
Chinnor got themselves on the board quickly, however, a string of strong pick-and-goes eventually led the ball to be spread wide for Kieran Goss to touchdown on the right.
Hosts’ centre Stevie Bryant was then held up over the line, but after Ben Glynn was yellow carded for the away side as they illegally stopped a series of mauls, Stapley grabbed his second in carbon-copy fashion to his first.
A Bourton penalty proved the last action of the opening period, but Rams wrapped up the bonus-point when a mini-break from Michael Dykes led to Jak Rossiter touching down on the left in the 50th minute.
A wonderful touchline conversion from Humberstone made it 24-8, but Chinnor turned the game on its head with two quick-fire seven-pointers.
Firstly, replacement Keston Lines burrowed over from close range within a minute of coming on, and then Bourton also added the extras to a score from himself which came at the end of a lightning counter-attack.
Yet Rams knuckled down, and with their scrum in the ascendancy and James Baker in destructive form, settled the ship and moved further in front with a crucial fifth try when Stapley completed his hat-trick from close range.
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And while Chinnor battled to the end, Rams finished with a flourish as another slick backs move ended with Henry Bird touching down in front of clubhouse corner for his 10th try of the campaign.
The final word went to debutant Sam Nicholls, who came on against his boyhood club at fly-half to land the conversion and send the majority of the 1,000-plus strong crowd home happy.
By Richard Ashton
