SEB Reynolds admitted Rams must learn to deal with being a scalp for visiting sides after slipping to a 17-13 home defeat to Blackheath.
Having enjoyed an amazing debut season in which they finished as runners-up in National One, the former underdogs fell to a second home loss in three games after the reverse to Sale and victory against second-placed Cinderford.
And Director of Rugby Reynolds confessed his players are far more of a target than they were back in the 2019/20 campaign.
He said: “You could see just how excited Blackheath were to beat us – it looked like the game of their season so far, which is a compliment to us as a club.
“The fact is sides want to come here and beat us, they’re very motivated and we have to deal with that.”
After falling behind to an early Freddie Gabbitass penalty, the hosts hit back with a Jamie Guttridge try and five points from the boot of Drew Humberstone.
A converted Ollie Claxton try levelled the scores, but a second Humberstone penalty put Rams 13-10 up at the interval.
Blackheath dominated the third quarter and moved in front when Gabbitass landed a brilliant touchline conversion of Jake Lloyd’s try, and while Rams rallied in the final 20 minutes, they missed numerous opportunities to snatch victory – most notably when the bounce of the ball narrowly evaded Stevie Bryant with the try line at his mercy.
Reynolds continued: “There were some really good moments in the game, a nice try early on and it was a good contest.
“We had our chances to win the game and perhaps with a couple more minutes that would have been the case, but credit to Blackheath.
“They were very, very good, excellent in the set-piece and they managed to neutralise the maul which meant we had to play in other areas.
“While I felt we did that at times, they deserved the victory.”
He continued: “We were very close to winning the game, but that’s the way it goes. We had a big game against Cinderford a couple of weeks ago and you have to try and back that up – if you drop off a couple of per cent against these sides you let them in, and that’s what we did.”
While disappointed with the defeat, Reynolds did see some encouraging signs, with Connor Hayhow regularly getting over the gain line in midfield and replacement scrum-half Caolan Englefield impressing off the bench.
He continued: “Connor is very dangerous and has been in good form all year, and his chop tackling has really improved which is great.
“Caolan had real energy and a really nice tempo to his game when he came on, and credit to James Baker who put in a great shift for all 80 minutes.”
