SEB Reynolds admitted Rams must learn quickly after they suffered a second consecutive National One reverse, the 34-25 home defeat to Bishop’s Stortford seeing them knocked off top spot.
A brilliant start had the hosts in front as Rowan Grundy crossed on the left, but two converted maul tries from Isaac Bell and Will Rogers pushed Stortford in front.
Rams struck back as Zach Clow dived over following yellow cards to David Hayes and Henry Peck, Mike Cooke following to temporarily reduce Bishop’s to 12 men.
Andrew Lamb was the home side’s third try-scorer as they hit the front, only for a long-range Tom Mills penalty to nudge their opponents 17-15 up with the final play of the first half.
Rams again flew out the blocks at the start of the second period, Axel Kalling-Smith with a super score, but a quickfire double from Mills and Chris Smith, the latter added to by star man Cooke, left the hosts 29-22 behind.
Fraser Honey slotted a routine penalty to trim the deficit, but fittingly another strong set-piece saw Alex Rayment crash over before some stubborn Stortford defence helped them seal a first win in nine games against Rams.
A disappointed Reynolds said: “We came out of the blocks with some lovely rugby, scored a very good try, but discipline then put us down in our own 22 and their maul was extremely effective.
“I question the set-up of it, but you can only play what’s there and they mauled better than us and it won them the game.
“We tried some different things to stop it and a couple of times it worked, we got a good sack early and a knock-on, but they rode those out.
“In fairness they also attacked well and scored off a maul by going to the width for a walk-in try, so they also attacked better than us.”
Having hit back to lead shortly after the break, a repeat of seven days earlier at Sale, Rams failed to take control which the DoR admitted was his biggest regret.
He continued: “We’ve not been savvy enough when we’ve gone into the lead in the past couple of weeks.
“You need to maintain the lead, stay on top and take the game away from the opposition – we’re leaving teams in the game and they’re then building confidence.
“From there they get on top, it becomes a close game, and we know we’re a target for a lot of sides – when you give a team a chance of beating us, they get even more motivated and, in the end, Stortford thoroughly deserved the win.
“Being more ruthless is something the side must learn. There are factors with missing players which are out of our control, but that’s rugby and we’ve just got to get better.”
Despite the frustrating loss, which leaves Rams three points adrift of new table-toppers Richmond ahead of next Saturday’s trip to Birmingham Moseley, Reynolds found some plus points with the commitment of the team the greatest.
He concluded: “Some of our attack at times was superb, we had good pressure on them and forced three yellow cards, scored a couple of tries, and I thought James McRae in the air was fantastic.
“There are always positives to take – James Baker battling through injury to his finger, Ollie Cole keeping going shows the guys always fight for the shirt – but sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”
Rams head to Birmingham Moseley next Saturday (3pm).
