Last season’s top try-scorer took his Rams’ career tally to 34 in 51 appearances with one of the most important so far, but was quick to praise his teammates who fought to the bitter end before taking the spoils.
He explained: “We stuck to the process – we’ve been there and done it before, and a couple of years ago we were a bit of a second-half team.
“We know there’s a great togetherness in this team, people are celebrating little wins for each other and then obviously a bit more at the end.
“As a new young team, we didn’t fully know what to expect – Sedgley are always a good side and had loads of different stuff we had to focus on.
“Credit it to them, they put it to us, especially in the first half with tremendous physicality, but there was good leadership from us.”
See-saw scrap at Sedgley
It was the hosts who had enjoyed the better of the early stages with Josh Ree converting Zain Ainslie’s debut try before landing a 40-metre penalty, but Rams held firm and got on the board as their dominant scrum earned a penalty try.
Ree landed another kick following a breakdown infringement, but with captain Max Hayman scoring in first-half injury time and Axel Kalling-Smith benefitting from a lovely Ellis Jones kick, two tries in three minutes around the interval had Rams 17-13 to the good.
Tigers replied, though, Lewis Bradley somehow sneaking over from close range after a maul had been repelled, and from 49 minutes until stoppage time, it looked like that would be enough for Park to seal the deal.
Yet Rams refused to yield, one last attack seeing replacement full-back Andrew Lamb collect a bouncing ball before showing a good turn of foot to set-up Clow with a perfectly timed pass which sent the sizable visiting supporters into raptures.
A delighted Zach added: “The boys dug in, stuck together, and congratulations to the guys who were making their debuts (Aaron Tull, Willo Bicknell, Mike Cooke and replacement George Breese) – they stepped up and showed what we can be about.
“Losing up here by a point last year was a tough one to take, but our attitude was to just come and put our best foot forward, not worrying about the scoreboard until the very end.
“It’s a nice place to be as a squad and we’re excited for next week.”
Rams host Dings Crusaders on Saturday (3pm). For tickets, click here
