REDINGENSIANS Rams' coaches turned up the heat on their exciting young squad’s pre-season preparations with a tour to play four sides in three days.

A Thursday evening kick-off against Lymm, who finished third in National Three North last season, provided the first opportunity to see new prop signing Sean McDonald-Roberts and ex-Colt Jake Lane make their first-team debuts.

The long journey appeared to take its toll on the Reading men and a hard and gutsy performance from the home side made nonsense of their inferior league position.

A try from Andy Amor and two from Joe Duffelen were not enough to subdue Lymm, who were in the lead until a catch-and-drive in the dying seconds of the game provided Rams flanker Craig Nightingale with the winning try.

Saturday’s round-robin provided even stiffer opposition against National One sides Loughborough Students and Macclesfield, and National Two side Caldy.

Rams trailed early in the second half against Caldy until impressive tighthead prop James Baker (pictured) took to the field on his return from injury and promptly pushed the Caldy scrum off the ball to give Robbie Stapley an easy try.

The match finished in a 5-5 draw.

Next up were Loughborough, with Tom Vooght scoring for Rams and the score remaining a 5-5 deadlock until the recently signed Jak Rossiter pounced on a loose ball to give his new club a 12-5 victory.

As conditions deteriorated, the driving wind and rain made the final match against home side Macclesfield challenging for both teams.

The hosts had the majority of the pressure, but Rams made some good breaks, orchestrated by ex-Forest boy Jacob Atkins, on loan from London Irish.

However, a clinical finish was lacking, and in the end, Macclesfield were rewarded for their relentless pressure with a final catch-and-drive score in the corner allowing the competition hosts to finish 5-0 winners.

Rams head coach Mike Tewkesbury was encouraged by the tour, although admitted his side had things to work on.

He said: “The tour has proved very useful and provided a lot of the new players with an opportunity to show us what they can do.

“I thought we gave a good account of ourselves but there is still a lot to do before we take to the field for our first home league game against Taunton (September 3).”

Backs coach Seb Reynolds was also pleased, adding: “It’s great having Jacob in the squad because with Spike’s [Chandler] experience we have two 10s capable of controlling games.

“It was great to see James Baker back and remind everybody why he was voted the best tighthead in National Two last season, but for me as backs coach, I’ve got some real headaches over the next two weeks because I could almost pick two back lines and there wouldn’t be much between them”.

Rams’ pre-season continues tonight with a home match against local rivals Reading RFC (7.30pm), and the final game of pre-season away to Herefordshire’s Old Luctonians on Saturday (3pm).