Rams aim to halt slide in front of record crowd

RAMS are set to play in front of the biggest ever crowd they have encountered when returning to National Division 1 action at Plymouth Albion tomorrow (Saturday), kick-off 3pm, writes Richard Ashton.

With the Devonians sitting second in the standings and with the St Luke’s Men’s Day Out charity walk ending at The Brickfields, a bumper attendance is in store.

A staggering 3,500-plus pre-sales have already been confirmed, with the final figure likely to be more than 4,000.

A hostile environment is on the cards for Seb Reynolds’s team, who remain sixth in the table after losing 36-31 to Bishop’s Stortford before the weekend off.

It was a second straight defeat for the Old Bath Road men, who have now won 11 of their 21 fixtures to date.

Albion also suffered a setback last time out, their
11 match winning streak ended with a 34-26 loss to third-placed Blackheath. It was a first home reverse of the season for Albion.

Plymouth took the spoils 34-15 at Old Bath Road back in November, the victory kick-starting their sublime run of form. On that occasion Oli Rhoads grabbed a hat-trick for the hosts, but loanee Exeter Chiefs fly-half Iwan Jenkins proved the star man for Albion.

The stand-off was joined by wing Shea Cornish in registering try doubles, Joel Broadhurst also crossing the whitewash.

Jenkins added three conversions with Frankie Dart landing a penalty to get his side off the mark following Rhoads’s opener.

Victory was a second straight for Albion in the head-to-head, having won
47-33 in Berkshire last March.

Rams, though, did claim a 21-16 success on the road in October 2024, at the time making it eight wins in a row to start the season.

They lead the overall count six wins to four, with the two teams split 2-2 in Devon.

Defeats in the 2023/24 (28-22) and 22/23 (27-24) campaigns proved particularly harmful to Rams, who finished runners-up in both.

They had previously won on their first trip to Brickfields 26-19 in September 2021.

l IRISH tight-head prop Ryan Lomas was named Rams’ supporters’ player of the month for a string of impressive displays in February.