REDINGENSIANS Rams made it five wins on the spin and closed to within a point of sixth-placed Cinderford after winning 25-12 in Gloucestershire, writes Matt McCrory.

Two terrific halves, four fantastic tries and a bonus point were the rewards on an afternoon when the ample try records of Steven Bryant, Ben Henderson, Jak Rossiter and Greg Illingworth were added to.

Although Cinderford looked aggressive from kick-off, they quickly lost attacking rights to Jack Steadman’s jackal tackles. With the weight of Rams’ pack behind their opening rally, the visitors soon pushed against the hosts’ line.

Jacob Atkins pitched a high kick over Cinderford’s try line and found Bryant for the score, the London Irish loanee adding the conversion.

The Forresters made a few threats of their own, developing strong runs in the hands of Reuben Norville and Jack Shields, but these were held back by Rams’ centurion centres with both Bryant and Jordan Souter stopping Cinderford attacks.

However, for the first 15 minutes Rams were on top, and Cinderford’s Will Keenan was sin-binned after illegally ending a near-try chance from Robbie Stapley. Instead it was Henderson who was next to score after a shove in the right-hand corner. This went unconverted, but Rams led 12-0 at the 20-minute mark.

Cinderford started to pick up momentum towards the end of the first period, and despite missing a simple penalty, they scored their first points at the end of an 11-man maul, with hooker Henry Walker winning an unconverted try in the 38th minute.

The 12-5 advantage for Rams didn’t last long after the interval. Cinderford started strongly, directing all attacking play throughout the first five minutes.

The equaliser came from Aaron Ryan, who was surprised to stroll through a missing man in Rams’ defensive line and find a try under the posts. James Moffat added the extras for a square score on 44 minutes.

Souter found Rams’ redemption a few moments later with a break through and off-load to Conor Corrigan. Faced with three opposing men Corrigan chipped to the right-hand corner, guiding the ball directly to the outstretched arms of Rossiter.

Rams’ pack were also making a big impact on the pitch – huge driving mauls were common and there were instances of runaway scrums making 10 metres of distance. Stapley, Ross Crame and Phil Hoy made an oppressive force in centre-field attack while Tom Vooght and Ollie Taylor sent Cinderford offenders flying.

An Atkins penalty was Rams’ reward for their pack’s punch and made it 20-12.

Both teams continued to closely contest each other’s try lines, and Cinderford’s Moffat and Ryan flustered a near-certain try with a chip over the dead-ball line.

At the other end, Rams’ Vooght and Illingworth had a fantastic off-load try pulled back due to a forward pass.

Illingworth had to have another go, but did find his try, the last of the game. Coming off the back of a Rams scrum, Stapley’s pick-up opened the opportunity for an offload to Craig Nightingale and then to Illingworth for the bonus point try. Unconverted, it was the last say.

Redingensians host high-flying Old Elthamians on Saturday (2.30pm).