It was always going to be a tough ask for the young Lions side to take on a very strong Rams team who started the day in second place in National 1. The hosts showed their class in a very dominant display which, due to Chinnor's loss at Blackheath, put them joint top.

It took the hosts less than two minutes to open the scoring, the impressive centre Axel Kalling-Smith crashing through a number of would-be tacklers to score from 20 metres out. His try was converted by Fraser Honey (7-0).

It wasn't long before Rams doubled their lead when a clever lineout move was finished off by the powerful winger Charlie Robson. Again Honey was on target with the conversion (14-7).

Following the difficult first quarter that saw the home side dominate in all areas, the Lions settled in to the contest but, playing against a stiff breeze, were finding it difficult to win territory against a formidable Rams defence.

Had the Lions managed to hold the hosts to two scores they may have given themselves a chance but a further two scores in the last 5 minutes of the half all but ended the contest. The first came from prolific hooker Max Hayman who finished following a number of pick-and-goes and then 3 minutes later when a box kick was partially charged down it fell rather fortunately to Robson who fed Ben Atkins to score under the posts. Honey maintained his 100% record off the tee for a 28-0 half time lead.

Playing with both the slope and the wind second half, the Lions dominated territory and the home side began to make some errors. The Lions were moving the ball from edge to edge, as has become typical of this side, and eventually they were rewarded with a score when Malelili Satala, back from England Under 20's camp, crossed in the corner. on 51 minutes. The difficult conversion was missed by Dan Lewis (28-7).

When Satala scored his second on 63 minutes, collecting a clever kick through from Jamel Hamilton to gather and dot down impressively whilst in mid air, it seemed as though an incredible comeback could be on the cards. Lewis this time slotting the conversion from the touchline (28-12).

However the Lions failed to gather the resulting kick off and this gave the home side the platform to control the last quarter. Having twice been held up close to the goal line, they eventually got a deserved fifth try on 71minutes through the man-of-the-match Mike Hoyt who crashed over from close range (33-12).

A tough day for the Lions but they can take heart from their second half performance against a very good side.

Head coach Gareth Collins commented: ''We were beaten by a top side, who on the day played better than us, and we just have to accept that. It was really difficult to get out of our own half against the wind first half and so our errors were punished. We showed a lot of character second half though and once we moved the ball like we wanted to we were able to open them up. There were a lot of positives today so we'll move forward with those in to a huge game at home against Sedgley Park next week.''