DREW Humberstone’s late try helped Rams snatch a dramatic 22-19 victory in atrocious conditions at Tonbridge Juddians.
On a heavy pitch and with the rain falling, it was the home side who made the initial breakthrough as fly-half Tom White slotted a 30-metre penalty after Rams were penalised for not releasing.
However, the visitors rallied and after beginning to gain dominance at the scrum, they opened their account thanks to a smart piece of work from scrum-half Ollie Cole.
He took a quick tap penalty five metres out, and with Henry Bird cutting a fine line from the right, the wing crossed for his seventh score of the season.
Humberstone landed the extras, but Tonbridge responded immediately with a second White penalty to cut the gap to a solitary point.
Juddians then dominated around the half-hour mark, camping in the Rams’ 22 until some brilliant defence – which included one particularly crunching tackle from the outstanding Max Hayman – forced a penalty and the chance to clear.
However, the hosts then hit the front in somewhat fortuitous fashion, a bouncing ball hacked on a couple of times before Tom Nicol collected and touched down to the left of the posts.
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White converted for a six-point advantage, only for Humberstone to halve it with a penalty before the interval.
Rams made a disastrous start to the second period as White immediately landed his third penalty, but they hit back with a fortunate score of their own as another unclaimed high ball eventually fell to Ellis Jones.
He broke down the right before off-loading to Bird, whose inside ball was then deftly clipped ahead from just short of the try-line by Jamie Guttridge who managed to get it down just before it ran dead.
The conversion fell short before White landed another long-range penalty to push his side four points ahead again, but Rams then took command in the final quarter.
Dominating both possession and territory, they won a string of penalties inside the 22, only for TJs to manfully repel the charge.
However, with time running out, a magical cross-field kick by young fly-half Rowan Grundy was collected by Jak Rossiter, and after it went through the hands from Jones to Humberstone, the full-back dotted down in the left-hand corner.
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His stunning touchline conversion made it 22-19, and with Rams able to hold their nerve in the closing stages, they closed the game out to halt a two-game losing streak and begin 2022 in a positive fashion.
The result leaves Rams in eighth place in the table, but within striking distance of the top two if they were able to win their two games in hand.
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