Old Elthamians struggled to get a foothold in the game as they sank to a 31-15 loss to the Rams at College Meadow on Saturday.

As the cold winter afternoons begin to give way to longer spring days, the end of the National One Rugby season has come into sharp focus for Old Elthamians.

With the severe rains from the week before cancelling the second XV’s fixture, the grounds team did a great job in ensuring that the first XV pitch was in top condition. With the wind at their backs Elthamians got proceedings underway. The home side were quick out of the blocks with fly-half Hilton Gibbons slotting a long-range penalty to put the hosts three points up.

Dominant Pack

This score fired the visitors into action as they hammered away at Elthamians line opting to scrum the home side off the park. Despite some incredible prolonged defence work, referee Neil Chivers awarded the Rams a penalty try following a number of scrum penalties and thus giving the Rams their first lead of the day. This would be the theme of the first half as the visitors’ pack got on top at set-piece time as they camped themselves inside Elthamians half. Despite being pushed backwards the home side employed a bend-but-don’t-break approach as they frustrated the Rams pack with crucial turnovers and clearances.

The pressure would tell eventually however as Rams number 10 Alex Seers identified space in behind the Elthamians defence and pushed a beautiful grubber kick into the in-goal area for scrumhalf Ollie Cole to dive on and extend the lead and with his subsequent missed conversion the Rams took a strong 12 – 3 lead with half time fast approaching.

Still In The Game

Despite being under the pump for long periods of play, Elthamians showed just how dangerous they can be as captain Hamish Barton scored a well-worked try on the stroke of half time following a beautiful bit of interplay between second-row Dom McGeekie and winger Cam Hancock down the left flank. With a well-taken conversion from Gibbons the scores were close at the break with the Rams leading 12 – 10.

Playing with the wind in the second half the Rams got proceedings underway through the boot of Seers as he went long with his restart aiming to pin Elthamians back. Following a period of physical close-quarter play, Elthamians were struck a major blow as Gibbons left with what initially looked like a temporary blood replacement but turned out to be a shoulder injury. Gibbons’ injury meant a reorganisation of the backline with inside centre Marc Kotesczky shifting to first receiver and Alex Brown coming into the number 12 channel.

As the home side were settling into their new rhythm the Rams struck with a well worked try as winger Jak Rossiter showed his pace to get over in the corner. Seers added the conversion and the Rams once again held a nine-point advantage. But much in tune to the theme of the game, Elthamians struck back this time courtesy of front rower Austin Hay who crashed over to bring the home side back within a score.

Sucker Punch

Unfortunately for the home side this would be the closest they would get to victory as the Rams scored two further tries through Flanker Tom Vooght and powerhouse replacement centre Connor Hayhow, who broke through multiple would-be tacklers on his way to the line. With the two tries and a further conversion from Seers the Rams picked up a well-deserved 31 – 15 win on the road that sees them consolidate their position in the top four of the league.

For the home side there are plenty of positives to take away, firstly the addition of five players under the age of 21 in the match-day squad shows that the future is bright, couple this with their unrelenting defensive effort and ability to score off turnovers and Director of Rugby Gavin Lach has a really strong base from which to build around.

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