DIRECTOR of Rugby Seb Reynolds is intrigued to see how his side can go as they take on the best of Ireland’s league talent during the pre-season tour to Dublin.

Rams face Lansdowne this evening (7.30pm), before locking horns with Terenure College on Saturday (2pm), with Seb excited following six weeks of pre-season to date after a sixth-placed finish in National One last time out.

He revealed: “It’s been nice to have some time off although it went really quickly, but since coming back in early July everything has been good.

“We haven’t been on a pre-season tour for a long time – I remember going on them in Mike Tewkesbury’s era – and after the thought of an Ireland trip was mentioned the uptake from the players has been outstanding.

“To take 37 players across to Dublin is really exciting and it will be a really good bonding experience.”

Lansdowne and Terenure finished third and as runners-up respectively in Division 1a of the All Ireland League last season, and Seb continued: “If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to do it properly and really challenge yourselves.

“It doesn’t get any harder than the teams we’re playing unless you go and play Leinster and Munster.

“They’re two fantastic sides and they’ve also been incredibly welcoming and accommodating in the organisation – this wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t been so good, so a huge thanks to them and we’re really looking forward to being here.”

While many of the players heading over the Irish Sea are well known to the Ramily, new recruits Dan Swain – formerly of Taunton Titans and Plymouth Albion – and Terell Harry, a prop from Saracens and Ealing, bolster the pack.

And Seb commented: “Dan’s been very impressive in pre-season. What I like about him is he sorted himself out – he knew he was moving down this way and he’s up to training all the time. He’s a real workhorse.

“Terrel’s a really exciting, good young prop. He was given a challenge to work on his conditioning over the summer and the thing I’ve been so impressed with is he’s not missed a training session.

“The first thing you ask (with a new player) is ‘are you willing to put the work in, turn up every time and keep going?’ and everything we put in front of him, he keeps putting one foot in front of another and he’s really progressing and very excited to be selected for the tour.”

Another new addition who has delighted Seb is ex Oratory School scrum-half Ollie Monye, who was previously on loan from Wasps.

The DoR stated: “Ollie’s brilliant and typifies the kind of player we want at the club. He was at Wasps and at this time it’s not quite worked out for him, but we’re the beneficiaries of that.

“There’s a path for Ollie to play a very high level of rugby – he’s an incredibly exciting young player whose got a lot to learn in the game, but he has so much scope for improvement which is really great.

“He’s from the Reading area, he went to school down the road and he’s just the guy we want here.”

The final new recruit – wing Faysal Oyaboole – is joined by Fin Matthews, the precocious Reading University man who impressed for the Titans last season before scoring a hat-trick for Berkshire Under 20s in the final of the Bill Beaumont County Championship.

And Seb admitted: “They’re two exciting young guys who have actually been living together in student digs over the summer. Again, they haven’t missed training sessions and they’re showing up really well – we’ve got some good young wings at the moment pushing the more experienced guys so it will be interesting to see how they go.”

While the new guys will get their opportunity in Dublin, the bulk of the squad who have finished as runners-up and in sixth during the past two National One campaigns are all set to go, and Seb finished by saying: “The guys who’ve been here a long time have shown what they can do and they’ve performed in National One, but that means there’s a responsibility to keep doing it and you can’t ever rest on your laurels at this level.

“We have to keep turning up, putting the effort in and that’s all we ever ask – and they’ve done it this pre-season, so we’ll see how we go.”