DIRECTOR of Rugby Seb Reynolds admitted a sense of pride in defeat as his much-changed Rams outfit were overcome 20-3 in tough conditions at in-form Caldy.
The hosts’ Ben Jones put his side in front with a penalty midway through the first half, only for Drew Humberstone to level before the interval.
Rams came out firing at the start of the second period, but were gradually ground down and converted tries from Jack Parker and JJ Sanders, added to be a second Jones penalty, meant they returned from the Wirral defeated.
However, Reynolds, who made nine changes to the side from the previous week’s loss to Blackheath, said: “(Defence coach) Danny Batty made the point you never want to be satisfied with losing, but sometimes there are bigger pictures at play and we wanted to give guys who’ve been performing well for the Titans an opportunity.
“We feel we’ve got good depth in the squad and some good young players who are starting to push, and the only way you get improvement from them is by challenging them.
“Caldy away is a tough challenge because they’re a very, very good side, but I was really pleased with the way we stuck at it for the full 80 minutes – the players did very well.”
Rams came under pressure for large parts of the game, especially in the second half when they were playing uphill into the wind, but never gave up.
And Reynolds said: “The goal-line defence was outstanding – there were a couple of defensive sets when we managed to push them back to the 22, but with inclement weather and against the wind in the second period we found it tricky to exit our half because Caldy played really good tactics and they deserved their victory.”
He said: “Experience does play a part, and especially in tricky conditions because the cohesion and connection of your group isn’t there on the basis you’re bringing in new players.
“When you put that up against a side which is connected, knows what it’s doing and does it very well, it causes an imbalance between the two sides.
“But I felt our guys grew into the game and sorted out the defensive organisation, and some of the tackling was outstanding.”
“We also had some nice attacking stuff – we attacked through the middle of the ruck well, there were a couple of nice handling moves and I thought Axel (Kalling-Smith) in midfield was very good, constantly beating the first man which is so important.”
A couple of youngsters again caught the eye in hooker Max Hayman and flanker Vince Everitt, the latter making his first National One start.
And Reynolds said: “Vinny with his turnovers got us out of a couple of situations with outstanding jackaling and Max is really growing into the role. He put in a good performance with some good hits and some nice carries as well.”
The defeat sees Rams drop to seventh in the table, albeit with a game in hand on all the sides above them, and the DoR said: “We came here to perform and try and get a result, so it’s disappointing, but we can still take a lot from it because a lot of the guys put their hands up and showed we have some excellent young talent coming through.”
Rams host their first-ever Friday Night lights against Chinnor this week (7.45pm). Supporters are asked to pre-book a ticket through the club website – www.ramsrugby.com – to ensure swift access to the ground.
