RESOLUTE Rams maintained their winning start to the National One season with a hard-fought and scrappy 10-6 success at Bishop’s Stortford.

With the heavens opening just before kick-off, the early exchanges were predominantly played in the hosts’ half, though they defended a series of mauls well inside their 22.

Rams fid, though, open the scoring with a sweet score from Swedish international Axel Kalling-Smith, the wing taking the ball from the back of a scrum and swerving round the outside to dot down on the right from some 35 metres out.

Fraser Honey – needing three to record his 1,000th National League point – was unsuccessful from the tee, and Stortford cut the gap almost immediately as Mike Cooke landed a straight-forward penalty from in front of the posts.

Tom Vooght forced Bishop’s into a goal-line drop-out after he forced a charge-down and kicked ahead, the hosts retrieving the ball to prevent the score.

The Hertfordshire side were impressing up front both at the scrum and the set-piece, and they edged in front when a maul was brought down and Cooke bisected the uprights.

It was an advantage they took into half-time, and they came close to moving further clear when scrum-half Chris Bolton made a brilliant snipe before kicking the ball to the right-hand corner, Rams just able to bundle the attacker into touch five metres short of the line.

The visitors, however, began to take control of territory and possession, albeit again unable to make their way over, and following a string of penalties, Stortford’s Toby Hill was sin-binned.

With fellow prop Harry Peck having been concussed at the end of the first half, the hosts were forced into playing with 13 for 10 minutes as the scrums went uncontested.

Stortford dealt with their numerical disadvantage well, although Tomek Pozniak twice came close to crossing – firstly just unable to get the ball down in time as he chased his own kick, then it just evading him from a cross-field Honey nudge.

It was third time the charm for the Pole, though, Rams hammering away on their opponents’ line until the ball was sent left for the wing to wriggle his way over from a metre out.

Honey was again off target, and while Stortford rallied towards the end, a trademark Tom Vooght turnover proved decisive as his penalty was followed by the ball being booted out and the final whistle blown.

Rams host Birmingham Moseley next Saturday (3pm).

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