The hooker joined from fellow Berkshire side Newbury Blues back in 2019, making his National One debut as a teenager in defeat at Richmond.
However, he has gone on to enjoy plenty of success since, scoring 64 tries in 92 appearances to help Rams to a trio of runners-up finishes as well as two more top-six finishes.
Loyalty key for captain
But having taken over the captaincy at the start of the season, the 24-year-old admitted he has chosen to stay at Old Bath Road due to a sense of loyalty and desire to ‘to finish the story’.
He explained: “Rams took a punt on me when I was Berkshire Under 20s, and I want to be here when we hopefully get to where we want to go.
“What everyone at the club has done for me has been incredible, they go above and beyond and it’s an unbelievable place to be.
“I remember meeting Owen (Root) for a coffee at Savacentre when I was first asked to come along, and he’s been a massive influence helping me develop as a hooker.
“Danny (Batty’s) defensive experience has helped improve me massively with my tackle technique, and then Seb (Reynolds) and Harry (Stapleton) with their attack and skills work is helping me come on each week.
“Daryl (Watson) and Joe (Southwell) with the S&C get us going for the full 80 minutes and I can’t wait to continuing to work with everyone involved on and off the field.”
Praise for supporters
He added: “My family are also hugely invested in the club’s journey – my brother George will complete 26 from 26 games watching at Darlington on Saturday – and the rest of the Ramily have always been incredible.
“Any players joining this summer will be so lucky to experience what we get to every Saturday with the supporters we have – we owe it to them to finally get it done next year.
“I’ll never forget last season before Christmas when we went to Richmond and more than half the crowd were Rams.
“Wherever we go, even Darlington for a game with nothing riding on it this weekend, there’ll still be people supporting us and that’s just brilliant.”
Lessons learnt in tough season
Depending on Saturday’s result at DMP, Rams are set for a finish between fourth and sixth, but the skipper says he has learnt a lot during adversity in his first campaign at the helm.
He explained: “We’ve gone through a lot of hardship this year, but in a weird way it’s also been a good thing because some players have come through.
“Hodgy (Ollie Hodgson) has been outstanding and had Ed (Hoadley) and Ollie (Cole) not been injured, we probably wouldn’t have got to see what he can do.
“(Mikey) Duda’s come through again and showed what he does, I can’t believe Harry Stone is only 20 because he hits like a train – I’m just so excited to see how these guys can push on further along with the others we’ll be bringing in before pre-season.
“As I said we’ve had some tough times and while he won’t be around next season, I want to thank Robbie (Stapley) for what he’s done this season – he’s just been great around the team. I’ve learnt a lot from him, Fraser (Honey) and Nile (Dacres), they’ve helped mentor me and while I know I’ve made some wrong decisions, I’ll learn from those.
“On the plus side we’ve also shown we can play different styles of rugby dependent on the opposition – the recent games against Rotherham and Rosslyn Park we were completely up-tempo, free-flowing, but earlier in the season we won games by controlling them how we needed to.
“I can’t wait for next season.”
