RAMS maintained their wonderful start to the National Two South season as the leaders made it eight wins from nine games with a 38-21 bonus-point success at Old Redcliffians.

With the Arctic blast hitting Bristol, the Reading men did brilliantly well to come away with a win despite the tough conditions and head coach Seb Reynolds said: “It was a good performance as this is such a tough place to play rugby, and it doesn’t ever seem to be dry here.

“You have to manage the slope down into both corners, as well as the wind against the clubhouse.

"You also have to deal with a team who knows how to play good, hard rugby. I’ve got a lot of respect for what they do, and its credit to them that we’re so pleased with the win, because they’re a good side at home.”

Reynolds was also quick to praise individual performances within the Rams side, adding: “We had some excellent impacts including Olly Taylor, with his first run out as captain.

“Andrew Amor put in a really great performance and Michael Etete in the second row showed he’s got some talent and we’ve got something to work with. I’m really pleased for those guys.”

The Rams dominated the opening exchanges of the game, with the pack completely overwhelming Old Reds, and eventually getting their reward 10 minutes in courtesy of a penalty try.

The home side bounced back quickly, and when Rams fly-half Alex Seers mis-kicked an attempted clearance, Henry Bird collected the ball to touch down. Ash Groves landed a tricky conversion to bring the scores level.

Rams were unfazed by this setback and scored two more tries in quick succession, both in similar fashion, going through the phases and forcing the ball over the line via Taylor and prop Niall Kidd.

With Old Redcliffians falling behind on the scoreboard, the referee added further to their woes with Jake Caulfield receiving a yellow card, but despite their numerical disadvantage, they enjoyed their best spell of the game in the run-up to half-time, albeit unable to convert their pressure into points.

After a quiet start to the second half, Rams resumed where they had left off in the first, gaining ground methodically and going through the phases relentlessly before replacement Jack Steadman dotted down for the bonus-point score. Another Seers conversion pushed his side 28-7 ahead.

The hosts were not deterred, though, as they came flying forward with quick hands and explosive pace, and Bird eventually burst through a gap in the Rams defence and sidestepped Conor Corrigan to bring the home side within two converted tries of their opponents.

However, any spark of a comeback was quickly extinguished by the ruthless Rams, as they completed an impressively powerful 25-yard drive to the line with Steadman placing the ball down from the back of the maul for the Rams fifth of the game.

Old Redcliffians responded with a try for their man, Ed Boxall, but it was only consolation as Seers converted a penalty in the final few minutes to put the cherry on top of an established performance by the Rams.

Dings Crusaders visit Old Bath Road this coming Saturday (2pm).