MATCH REACTION: 'TRIES EITHER SIDE OF HALF TIME KILLED US'

DIRECTOR of Rugby Seb Reynolds confessed two Tonbridge Juddians’ tries either side of half time proved pivotal in Rams’ 49-19 National One away defeat.

The visitors started superbly and dominated the opening first 10 minutes, Alex Ridgway eventually over for a score added to by Ross McKay.

But a series of errors allowed TJs to take control as Jack Walsh, Connor Lloyd and Matt Engelbrecht all touched down.

Lloyd converted all three and repeated the trick after Walsh doubled up.

Pete Austin crossed for Rams before McKay halved the deficit with four minutes of the opening period remaining.

Another error, though proved costly as Steffan James and Lloyd made it 35-14 at the break.

And a disastrous start to the second period saw Ryan Cozens sin-binned before a Jay Nay seven-pointer for the hosts.

Rams bossed the next 20 minutes – held up over the line three times as TJs No. 8 Harrison Langworthy was yellow carded.

But they failed to convert their pressure before ex-Berkshire Boy Vinny Everitt extended the lead at the other end.

Lloyd was again on target for 49-14.

And while Austin doubled his tally from another maul, it was too little, too late.

Naive moments prove costly

Reflecting on the loss, Seb said: “The tries either side of half-time killed us.

“It completely took the game away, and they could have been avoidable from our end.

“It’s a sign of a side which needs to build its maturity and execution. It speaks of naïve moments.

“We’ve had good pressure, but then conceded two so quickly, it heaps it back on ourselves.

“It’s not ideal, but something we need to work on as a group.”

He continued: “The things we worked on in the week we managed to put into action – at least for the first 10 minutes!

“We had decent pressure, good discipline, field position and entries into the 22.

“But after the score we couldn’t do that.

“We let a dangerous side have territory, switched off in midfield and allowed them to get away.”

“TJs were quality. They played some brilliant rugby, lovely fluid stuff in the middle axis with some great off-loads to dangerous players.

“And the ones we identified as needing to shut down, we weren’t able to, so credit to them.

“But we let them build momentum, lost our discipline and it wasn’t a pretty performance by any means.

“Part of the frustration is there were little sparks where you could see what we could do, but our unforced error count meant we couldn’t sustain it.”

Trailing 42-14 with 45 minutes remaining, Rams actually dominated much of the second period, camped in their opponents’ 22 for long periods.

‘We’ve got to be more patient’

The DoR commented: “There’s a positive in the way we stuck at it, but the score shouldn’t have been there.

“And that’s not to take anything away from TJs, who were excellent.

“But what we should have been able to produce would have had us closer and at that point in the game at least.”

Rams then lost their composure being held up over the line three times.

And Seb ended: “They were acts of desperation from guys thinking ‘we have to score here’, and at this level, when you reach out, there can be defenders around you who stop it.