RAMS head coach Seb Reynolds was a satisfied man after his side battled to a 26-19 bonus-point win at Barnes.

The National Two South table-toppers ground out victory on a wet and miserable day, but Reynolds said: “I was pleased with the way we played for parts of the first half.

“We had discussed how we were going to play in these sorts of conditions and to a large extent the boys executed that, but there were two moments where we didn’t and we handed Barnes two tries.

“That’s what happens in these rainy conditions, you slip up in the middle of the park and the opposition come and score.”

He continued: “In the second half we were quite dominant. We had to play field position against a lively Barnes team who were really battling hard, so I give a lot of credit to them for staying in the game. But overall it’s great to come away with a bonus-point win and I’m very happy with the effort put in by the lads.”

Barnes came out the quicker of the two sides, putting points on the board after just two minutes.

Having won a line-out following an exchange of kicks which had put them on the front foot, the Barnes men drove to the line for the first try of the afternoon.

Having resisted the early Barnes pressure, Rams replied with a try of their own in similar fashion to the first after 12 minutes, driving to the line with James Baker placing the ball down in the corner to bring the sides level.

Owing to the back and forth nature of the game, the next try-scoring opportunity fell to the home side as Max Murray exhibited some quick thinking, tapping-and-going from a penalty and weaving his way through the Rams defence, only to be brought down agonisingly close to the line.

The men from Barnes were not done though, as they went through the phases with a try eventually being disallowed for a double movement.

Not disheartened, Barnes continued to pile the pressure on the Rams as an extremely scrappy move involving a failed clearing kick from Joe Duffelen almost allowed the home side yet another scoring opportunity, only for the ball to just evade them before going out of play.

With Rams stuck in their half, Alex Seers lifted them out of trouble with a sublime kick.

Shortly after this, Andrew Humberstone pierced the Barnes defence with a darting run and rounded the last defender by passing to Jak Rossiter who burst over the line.

With a half-time lead looking likely, Rams shot themselves in the foot when Johan Van Der Poel intercepted a pass and ran the short distance to the try line to level the scores at 12-12.

Both sides came out slowly with nothing of note happening until after the 60-minute mark as the Rams superior fitness came into play and they were awarded a penalty try following a hard-fought drive.

Rams further capitalised on this momentum, securing yet another penalty try despite a yellow card for Stuart Everton.

Barnes enjoyed a late surge, scoring within the last five minutes, having driven from a penalty scrum, but it was not enough.

Rams welcome Guernsey to Old Bath Road on Saturday.