MIKE Tewkesbury believes Redingensians Rams must ‘kick on’ following their 43-21 National Two South home win against Exmouth, writes Richard Ashton.

The Old Bath Road side turned in a fine performance to hammer the rock bottom visitors, running in six tries in a demonstration of their attacking skills.

Director of Rugby Tewkesbury told the Chronicle: “It was one of our better performances of the season. It was good to get the bonus point and it was encouraging, although I think we probably could have had 60-odd points so there is a hint of frustration.

“I thought we were very good in ‘chaos play’, but we perhaps should have provided a bit more variety and patience in the first half. That filtered through in the second.

“We need to kick on for the rest of the season and earn a higher finish (than where we are now).”

Rams made a dream start when inside centre Dan Barnes strode through the visitors’ defence to open the scoring inside 80 seconds, It was not long before Redingensians doubled their lead as No. 8 Ross Crame burst through before finding Steve Bryant to go over. Jacob Atkins again added the extras to make it 14-0.

Exmouth hit back with a try of their own following a spell of sustained pressure, Milo Reynolds burrowing over around the fringes of a ruck.

An Atkins penalty pushed Rams further ahead before a brace of tries shortly before the break sealed a bonus point.

Firstly, a stunning pass from the outstanding Atkins allowed Jak Rossiter to go over in the right-hand corner, and scrum half Greg Illingworth then scored a sensational individual try. After a Conor Corrigan burst, Illingworth superbly picked up an off-load low down before chipping ahead and collecting to cross the whitewash. Atkins added the extras before James Harris replied with a second Exmouth score – again coming from close range – as the visitors entered half time trailing 29-14.

Rossiter – who had been harshly denied a second score for a forward pass late in the first half – did go over early in the second half, Atkins nailing a tricky touchline conversion.

Isaac Dalton got a third try for Exmouth as they continued to battle, but it was Corrigan who got the final – and best – try of the day, the wing scything through the visitors defence before going over under the posts.

Prop James Baker made his long-awaited return from injury midway through the half – winning a penalty in his first scrum – and though Rams had two further scores from Antony Marris and Rossiter chalked off, they were worthy winners.

Tewkesbury, however, praised the visitors and was not completely happy with his side’s display.

He admitted: “They’re at the basement of the league at the moment, but were going for the bonus point and to try to win the game initially.

“I think we were a bit lazy. We’ve got a good defensive record, but at times we made elementary errors. Whether that’s because we entered into the open style of the game I don’t know.”

However, the Rams boss reserved praise for Atkins and the returning Baker, adding: “Jacob is learning his trade in terms of controlling a game, but he’s got a fabulous skill set, and he’s now starting to control things more.

“It was nice to see James back and that’s a big bonus for the club. He’s an exceptional player at this level.”

Redingensians travel to Barnes as they seek a third consecutive victory on Saturday (2pm), and Tewkesbury concluded: “It will be a hard game, it doesn’t have much of an atmosphere there and they’re not a bad side, but we’ll obviously be looking to progress this winning sequence.”