HEAD coach Seb Reynolds was delighted with his Rams RFC side after they made a brilliant start to life in National One with a 36-32 triumph at Cambridge.

Andrew Denham and Henry Bird both bagged braces, and with Ellis Jones also crossing the whitewash and Alex Seers adding 11 points with the boot, Rams enjoyed a dream start.

And Reynolds beamed: “I thought we did really well to get a win against a highly skilful and very dangerous Cambridge team.

"I was very pleased with the way our side performed – you have an idea of what to expect at National One, but actually playing games is different.

“It was great to open our account with a win, but one swallow doesn’t make a summer – there are no bad sides at this level and there are lots of great teams with outstanding players.

"We will do exactly what we did last year which is to concentrate on developing through building skills and working hard and taking each game as it comes."

It was the home side who opened their account in the third minute with a Ben Penfold penalty, only to see the advantage wiped out soon after when Andrew Humberstone burst through the Cambridge defence to feed flying wing Denham for his first score of the afternoon.

Two minutes later a rare Rams fumble presented Cambridge with a scrum in their opposition’s 22, and fast hands from the set-piece found full-back Joe Tarrant in space on the left touch line to make it 8-5 to the home team, Penfold unable to add the extras.

Aside from another Penfold penalty in the 38th minute the rest of the half belonged to the men from Reading.

Fly-half Seers found Denham in space out wide and some sharp footwork from the wing and a powerful hand-off took the visitors deep into their opposition’s half.

A final pass inside to the outstanding Jones gave the Rams outside centre his first try at National One.

Seers converted and then in the 32nd minute produced a bit of magic to put new signing Henry Bird in for a touchdown.

Seers added the extras and then kicked a penalty of his own at the end of the first period to make the half-time score 22-11 to the visitors.

Jones and Denham teamed-up again on the 42nd minute, but this time it was Denham who got to finish the move, grabbing his second try of the afternoon. Seers was again on target with the conversion.

The home team hit back on 50 minutes with a converted try, only to see the 18-point gap re-established in the 55th minute when hooker Ben Henderson sidestepped, swerved and broke tackles before offloading to full-back Bird to give the debutant a brace for his afternoon's work.

The game looked over with Rams maintaining their advantage deep into the final quarter, until well worked successive tries by the home team, both converted by Rhodri Adamson, brought Cambridge back to a deficit of just four points with 90 seconds left on the clock.

The away supporters could barely watch the restart fearing their dream opening appearance may yet be spoiled by Cambridge’s lively backline, but as Seers put the ball deep into the Cambridge 22 it was the flying Denham who got there first to secure possession which the Rams pack did not squander, running down the clock to bring the game to a close and a dramatic 36-32 win.

Rams will look to follow up their perfect start at home to Birmingham Moseley on Saturday (2.30pm).