RAMS Director of Rugby Seb Reynolds believes his squad have done what they need to do in the past two months as they break off for the summer, writes Richard Ashton.
In this most bizarre of seasons, training has been continually disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic, meaning team sessions were halted in both November and from the start of January until the end of March.
However, the boys in blue have rallied superbly and followed up last week’s 45-7 home triumph against Chinnor with a 38-0 success at Maidenhead – in a hastily-arranged friendly – on Saturday.
And Reynolds said: “It’s been great and we’ve got exactly what we wanted out of this period, which was to welcome the guys back into the group environment, get them training which they haven’t been able to do for much of the last 12 to 14 months, and finally have some fixtures at the end of it.
“We’ll now have a month off and then the serious stuff starts in July.”
Reynolds was also effusive in his praise of Maidenhead, who stepped up to offer a fixture after Rams’ originally scheduled game at Chinnor was cancelled due to a positive Covid test in the opposition camp.
He continued: “It was brilliant – the sun finally decided to come out for the first time this summer and along with it the good will of Maidenhead in inviting us along at the last minute.
“We’re genuinely so thankful to them because if they hadn’t – and you have to remember they did two stints against Oxford University and then ourselves – we’d have had 25 boys without rugby, so we really are grateful.
“They were maybe a little bit tired, but they were very good early on and very gutsy so you can’t take anything away from them.
“Our guys did really well because we had a lot of young boys out there and they all wanted to show what they can do, and I was really pleased with how they went.”
Omar Ellaboudy, Sam Boyland and Michael Dykes dotted down for the visitors, but one star of the show for Rams was new outside back Will Janes, who grabbed a brilliant hat-trick and who shares a close connection with one of their recently departed stars.
And Reynolds explained: “He’s been a great recommendation from Conor Corrigan – all the way from over the pond (in Australia) he’s still having an influence!
“Will’s been fantastic – he popped up at the club and asked if he could come down, but he’s really mucked in, he’s a bundle of energy in training and in the game.”
And while Reynolds was keen to emphasise it was a fine team performance from the whole squad, 18-year-old Spencer Hayhow showcased his talents again, leading the DoR to conclude: “Considering it was only his second game of senior rugby, the boy can play.”
