RAMS repelled a ferocious second-half comeback from Cambridge as they edged the battle of two unbeaten sides 29-26 in a National One humdinger at Old Bath Road.
It was the home side who made the initial breakthrough, James McRae picking up at the base of a ruck on the 22 before carving his way over the line for Alex Seers to add a straight-forward conversion.
The Blood and Sand rallied, though, and a smart break in midfield from Ben Adams gave them the position for full-back Joe Tarrant to weave his way over for a try, former Ram Steffan James knocking over the conversion to level the scores.
However, RAMS then took a hold of the game, performing superbly for the remainder of the opening 40 minutes as they added two more tries to their tally.
Firstly, a strong rolling maul ended with Josh Collis getting the ball down for Seers to convert, and then the fly-half danced over on the left to make it 19-7 at the interval.
Man-of-the-match Seers was pulling the strings with some sumptuous passing and a machine-gun like boot giving his side terrific field position, and RAMS sealed the bonus-point early in the second period as skipper Robbie Stapley – who also put in a tremendous shift – powered over from close range.
Seers added the extras before landing a penalty, and with a 29-7 lead, the hosts looked on course for a comfortable victory.
Yet Cambridge showed why they had won their first five games with bonus-points, launching a brilliant fightback when Kwaku Asiedu touched down on the left flank following some slick handling among the backs.
And the wing’s second on the hour-mark, this time converted by James, reduced the deficit to 10 points with the home faithful temporarily silenced.
Things got even better for Cambridge as they recorded a bonus of their own, their renowned rolling maul getting going to earn a penalty try from which McRae was also sin-binned.
With 12 minutes remaining the game was on a knife-edge, but as the clock ticked down, replacement Ollie Moffitt forced a penalty on his own five-metre line to allow Rams to clear their lines.
And when Cambridge knocked on attempting to steal the resulting line-out, full time was called at the end of an absolute cracker.
Reflecting on a brilliant advert for the league, Reynolds said: “It was a good game of rugby. If you’re being critical you could argue we let them back into the game a little bit and maybe switched off, but I don’t think that was the case.
“It was two quality National One sides going hammer and tongs at each other, and they could have come back at any moment because they’re a good side and have started the season very well.
“We were playing so well to get into the lead and then they came back well, but I think we deserved the win.”
On the decisive late penalty, the DoR added: “It’s what Moff does so well, getting over the ball and to win that was great. We were able to just about force an error at the line-out to finish it off, but that last-gasp drama came after a lot of hard work to get into a position to win against a good side.
“Credit to Cambridge, they came and played some fantastic rugby and everyone got to watch a really good game.”
Rams endured some heart-breaking late defeats at the likes of Taunton Titans, Leeds Tykes and Sale last season, and Reynolds revealed those setbacks have made his side stronger.
He said: “Those types of losses are all part of the game. Every team has them and if you’re looking to push and improve, you have to learn to live with those rocky moments.”
For the first 50 minutes of the contest RAMS had really turned on the style, and the DoR continued: “There were some superb performances and I thought the way we applied ourselves early on was fantastic.
“We played some very entertaining rugby early on. What we wanted to do we put into action and there were some stand-out performances across the whole group.
“Josh Collis played well, James McRae was outstanding and Robbie (Stapley) is leading the side so well.
“In the backs, Alex is playing some really good stuff, Drew (Humberstone) was solid as a rock in midfield and Charlie (Robson), Birdy and Jak (Rossiter) in the back three got their hands on the ball early on and caused some damage.”
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Report by Richard Ashton
