Rams RFC

When Berkshire was a lawless place, the picturesque village of Sonning was a hideaway for the infamous outlaw Dick Turpin and his fabled steed Black Bess. Just under 300 years later, Rams RFC are attempting their own form of highway robbery by stealing the National One title from the rugby aristrocrats of Richmond.

When Dick Turpin was knocking about in Sonning – where legend has it his aunt would provide refuge for him after a night holding up travellers at gun point along Bath Road – rugby’s creation was still 140 years in the future. Which, is a shame. Because Turpin might then have got his kicks pursuing an oval ball, rather than the possessions of the travelling gentry, and kept himself from the gallows. 

These days, Sonning is increasingly synonymous with its rugby team Rams RFC, who are located on the same stretch of road Turpin used to case; now called Old Bath Road. 

While Rams’ story is one of modern rugby romance, Turpin’s is no love story with a happy ending. In case you don’t know it, a brief recap. Of the end at least. In 1739 in York, aged 33, he was hanged for horse-stealing, with the only mourners at his execution having been paid ten shillings each by Turpin to be there. Although his life has since been romanticised in gothic fiction, he was far from a romantic figure when alive. If only he’d encountered Rams. 

Despite the club being founded in 1924, a better place to jump in is 2018 when the club made the unusual decision of dropping their first name Redingensians (pronounced Reding-Ensians), to simply become Rams RFC. Since then, the club has gone vertical, winning National 2 South (level 4) the following season and taking to life in National 1 (level 3) this season with ridiculous ease. Oh, and their mini and junior sections are booming too, with 150 new players over the past four years. So, what’s in a name? “The kids just love it,” says Rams RFC CEO Gary Reynolds. “You can have so much more fun with a Ram mascot, you can have fun with his head, he looks aggressive, it’s got a nice sound to it. Rams sounds great, Reading Rams sounds great, it’s much better than being Redingensians for them. And you’ll see later, Rookie the Ram will come in.”

Rugby Journal has arrived at Rams RFC on a massive day for the club, the biggest in their history according to fans and staff. Rams are tied on points at the top of National 1 with Richmond, today’s opposition, in their first-ever season at this level. Win today and Rams can entertain the idea of back-to-back promotions and trips to play the likes of Ealing Trailfinders, Bedford Blues and – incredibly – the once-mighty Saracens, whose relegation from the Premiership was confirmed last night. In the clubhouse – fit for bursting two hours before the match – Gary tries to explain how all this has happened. How a club that was in terminal decline in the 1990s with player numbers dwindling, has risen this far. The name change may be important, but that’s comparative modern history, as the Rams go way back, to the days of showers heated by coke boilers and waste water draining into the club’s own cesspool. 

“John Cook has got to take a lot of credit,” says Gary. “If there is a Mr Rams, a Mr Redingensians, it’s John. He was the club secretary for 40-odd years [he stepped down in 2012] and is a lovely man. A very wealthy guy but he never put money in for players, it was always for facilities. And he brought in a very simple rule that all salaries of the first team must be covered by first team sponsorship. He put that rule in and stuck with it, and it’s a lovely straight-forward rule.”

That rule is the bedrock of Rams’ enviably low wage bill. This season it will total £130-135k, a paltry £5-10k more than last season when they were in National 2 South, and well under the £270k cap clubs can go up to in National 1.

Money – and using it to attract better players than your rivals – is the default assumption when a club climbs the leagues in the manner Rams have done [two promotions in five years]. But Rams are showing that a more sustainable model is possible. Alongside the first team, Rams also put out four other senior men’s teams and a women’s team. As the club’s senior administrator and a fan whose involvement with the club started in 1991, the club’s model is something Gary is clearly very proud of. “We have a very honest conversation with the players and we say, ‘you will never be the best paid but you’ll be the best looked after’. We’ve got a first-class physio team, one of the biggest backroom teams in the league, always two S&C coaches and two physios on a match day. Players are well fed on Tuesday and Thursday, and if they’re injured and there’s the need for a private operation, the club will pay. 

“In fairness I don’t think that’s unheard of and many clubs look after their players very well. Richmond would be one of those clubs. I think our wage bill will be similar to theirs.

“Clubs that do things differently are not doing anything wrong. Look at Bristol, if Steve Lansdown wasn’t putting money in, would they be where they are? But bless him, he is. And it’s great for the city of Bristol.

“It’s the same at Chinnor (who are in National 1 with Rams). Simon Vickers has committed so much to Chinnor. He has bankrolled them for a number of years and if you cut him, he bleeds black and white, and I take my hat off to him. 

“But I would prefer a model that is more progressive and can go forward where you can have revolving sponsors in and out.”

As well as being the club’s CEO, Gary is one of the club’s key sponsors. A successful businessman who founded a wealth management firm in the 1980s. “We all look back to when someone has said something to us, or given us an opportunity in life and it gives you a lift,” he says. “If you can educate people, and provide that opportunity… there is this sense of purpose the club has, and everyone on the committee would agree. I think it’s great.”

Opportunities for kids at Rams aren’t limited to Sunday rugby. There are swarms of youngsters who have come down today. Some are looking out for a high five with Rookie the Ram, but a lot more are looking out for their favourite first team player. 

One player held up in lights by the minis is first-team hooker Ben Henderson – ‘Hendo’ to all at the club. He has a particular fan in under-7s’ player, Will Meechan. “It was quite funny,” Hendo explains, “because when Will was a ballboy for a Cardiff Blues-Edinburgh match he was asked who his favourite players were for the programme. All the other mascots wrote Josh Navidi or other professional players – he wrote ‘Ben Henderson, Jak Rossiter and Conor Corrigan from Rams!’”

When we speak to Will about this, it’s clear he’s thought hard about his hero choices. On Hendo, Will declares “he’s good at scrummaging”, while Jak is described as “pacey with a good step” but Conor receives the highest accolade, possibly, of “wiggly”. 

Hendo, Jak and Conor are good examples of the types of players Rams have relied upon in rising up the leagues without flashing the cash.  

“A lot of boys here haven’t really been given opportunities anywhere else,” continues Hendo. “Very few here have ever been given a chance in a senior academy scenario for example. I was at Henley under-7s through to the juniors and I was never once approached about playing for the seniors. But through Berkshire U20s, Rams were the first people who said they’d be really interested in having you in.”

“It would have been my dream growing up to play seniors at Henley [a 20-minute drive] but they don’t invest back into players, even if they are there for a long time.”

Rams’ recruitment policy sets out to find these over-looked talents.  

“The current system misses the late developers,” says Gary. “Premiership clubs cast their net wide and bring in all the youngsters they think have potential but this is a late-development sport. I think they miss those that have loads of potential and we end up with them so I hope they never change because this is great for us!” 

It’s clear that identifying late developers, like Hendo, and bringing up home-spun talent (there are five players in today’s 23-man squad who played minis at the club, including Conor Corrigan) are a big driver of Rams’ success. 

So too is good coaching. The template for the club’s approach was laid down by the club’s former director of rugby Mike Tewksbury when he coached the Berkshire U20s to County Championship glory in 2013, with the club’s current director of rugby and head coach Seb Reynolds, as his assistant. Seb is also Gary’s son.

“It was a remarkable achievement to win that championship,” Gary declares. “Berkshire is a small rugby county with just thirteen clubs, compared with Yorkshire or Middlesex who both have six or seven times that number. And it was Tewks’ belief that it was down to good coaching. When we won I distinctly remember Tewks ringing me to say ‘we can go to National 1 with this model’. That model being to bring young players through from our youth section, from the University of Reading, and from other clubs in the area.

“But I have to say it is a surprise to be where we are now. We were getting ready for a battle this season. When we got promoted to National 2 South in 2015, the first ten games of the following season were like hell, it was extraordinarily difficult. 

“The boys playing today are largely the side which scrapped its way out of relegation that season and went on to gain promotion last term. They have just excelled. So where we have ended up now has surprised Tewks and me because the model hasn’t changed.”

Hendo goes further. “We go into every week expecting the wheels to fall off,” he admits, “that we’ll all be embarrassingly humiliated and our families won’t look us in the eye again.”

No wink nor smile follows. There’s a chance Hendo’s serious. But imposter syndrome or not, the players’ mentality is working for Rams on the pitch. 

With kick-off imminent, the clubhouse empties. The balcony is a popular option as Old Bath Road has no stand, something Gary knows he needs to sort.

In the January sunshine, the mood among the fans lining both sides of the pitch is jovial, more like the pressure-free excitement of a park run, than a gathering of rugby fans for the biggest game in their club’s history. Families are the main demographic, everyone we encounter is there with, or for, a son, daughter or parent. The attendance is massive for Old Bath Road: 1,131 people – more than three times what any other ground in the league will achieve this weekend, with the exception being Rosslyn Park, where almost 800 will watch their match with Sale FC.

Fit, aggressive and technically good, Rams start well. Although they concede an early try after scrum-half Jack Moates is charged down near his line, Rams hit back with two well-crafted tries. The first is by Ollie Taylor after a good run from Corrigan on his 100th appearance; and the second comes from Rossiter who touches down a crossfield kick. Yet Richmond take a 10-12 lead into half-time after scoring their second try.

On the sidelines, two Rams fans stop our Italian photographer Dani and tell him to “take a picture of us, it will be the most famous picture you will ever take, and afterwards we’ll tell you why”. 

As ruses go, it’s not a bad one and afterwards Joe and JJ Bell introduce themselves. Father Joe and son JJ are both former players with JJ having been part of the Redingensians team which won the overseas international competition at the Dubai 7s, and played his part in reviving the club’s league fortunes in recent decades. “Playing sevens really helped us accelerate things as a club,” says JJ. “Going back twelve years or so, the fifteens team was based around the sevens team.”

Joe outlines his family’s involvement with Rams down the years: “Six Bells have played in the first team, and Tim [who also played for Harlequins and then captained Redingensians out of the doldrums in the 1990s] was the best.”

It seems Joe wasn’t too bad either. “When I was 30 and at the peak of my powers I still couldn’t take dad on the outside!” JJ says of his old man.

We then bump into Ben Henderson’s dad, Allan. An artist, he was commissioned by Gary to commemorate Rams’ promotion to National 1. His artwork – titled ‘Front Row Rams’ – now hangs proudly over the stairs in the clubhouse. But he’s more interested today in talking about Rams’ season. He tells us it’s the consistency of selection which head coach Seb has delivered that has been so important to their success.

By now the second half has begun and we’re on the look-out for ‘Mr Rams’ John Cook. For one of the most recognisable faces at the club, he’s proving tricky to find. Gary’s wife, Cath, takes up the search, but John isn’t watching from his usual spot. Cath asks around, an orange and pink megaphone in one hand. A sighting of John is reported. He’s under the posts down the other end. John laughs when we tell him of the confusion. “Well this is my other spot you see,” he says, “you also get a better view looking back at everything.” 

John – a former player, captain and the club secretary for 37 years – is happy to paint the picture of how things were when he arrived at the club in 1965, and what his matchday duties involved as captain for three years before a hamstring injury forced him to retire as a player at 25.

“Over there is where the changing rooms used to be,” he says, pointing to an area where nothing now exists except for a group of fans craning to get a better view of the action.

“It was only a wooden hut with a coke boiler to heat the water. It was the responsibility of the captain to light it on a match day. And we had no mains drainage so we had a cesspool too.”

From here John covers off a whistle-stop history of his club, recalled in razor-sharp detail. 

The club was established in 1924 by former pupils of Reading School. Back then the club was exclusively for the school’s alumni with the club opening its doors to anyone to play in 1968, dropping ‘old’ from the name a year later. John became the club’s first captain not to have gone to the school. 

“Look at the red kites,” he says, pointing out four birds circling above the pitch, “they come from the Getty estate where they were released and can be found all along this stretch of the Thames.”

Meanwhile on the pitch, the match hangs in the balance, Rams are 10-15 down but John points out the number of late victories the team have had this season, most notably against Rosslyn Park when they scored two penalty tries (courtesy of their scrum dominance) in the last three minutes to win the game.

John moves on to talk about the re-naming of the club. “I like it,” he says. “Gary doesn’t make too many mistakes and that wasn’t one of them.”

The Rams are under pressure with Richmond camped in their opponents’ 22, which gives John the chance to point out some of the stalwarts in the team.

“The captain is Robbie Stapley who first played for us at eighteen,” he explains. “He was once offered terms at Plymouth Albion. That’s Tom Vooght, who’s been here since he was four and there’s James Baker (a prop), who came here aged twelve. He was the size of a scrum-half as a youngster but opponents would emerge after scrums saying ‘he’s hurting me sir’! His father taught him how to scrummage.”

With five minutes to play, the game’s defining moment arrives. Phase after phase from Richmond means Rams’ defence simply runs out of numbers and full-back Louis Molloy crashes, almost exhausted, over the line to score. “Lovely play, LOVELY play,” John announces, leading the applause. Indeed, it is lovely play. But it spells the end of the contest, although Rams do go on to score a consolation try and earn a bonus point from the game in a 17-22 loss. 

After the final whistle, we catch up with Gary. He is still wired. During the match, he smokes cigars from the technical platform on the halfway line. “It helps with the nerves,” he insists. But right now he has the look of someone who’s in for a sleepless night pondering what might have been; and perhaps pondering what still might be for Rams with a third of their games still to play this season. 

Head coach Seb and the players are more sanguine. Far from the ‘wheels falling off’, as Hendo feared, they pushed a club playing Championship rugby last season all the way in front of a record home crowd. Seb is upbeat and excited about the prospect of analysing the match to see where he can improve the team for their next game. He doesn’t say as much, but one fancies he shares his father’s view that the promotion race still has some way to run.

For the players, it’s time to join up with their families and friends on the pitch, and create some memories for their ever growing youth section with a team photo of minis and seniors together, something they do at the end of every match.

After plenty of photos, minis and seniors are tiring, and the post-match buzz drops. Players head for the showers, fans for the bar, even the Red Kites move on. 

As the sun goes down on the most well attended match in Rams’ history, more records will surely tumble in the bar takings tonight. And in not much more than fifteen hours, 500 or so minis and juniors will be hurtling around Old Bath Road dreaming of one day playing in the Premiership in a Rams jersey. It’s a dream Gary shares; actually it’s a dream he tops. Even back in 2014 – the season the club would gain promotion to National 3 South West (level 5) for the first time – Gary told the club website “wouldn’t it be fantastic if a Reading club, a proper Reading club, is in the Madejski  Stadium and makes the Heineken Cup Final?”

With London Irish’s switch from the Madejski Stadium in Reading to Brentford this summer, that ambitious statement has aged well. From the start of next season, the highest-ranked club in the English leagues between Reading and the Bath-Bristol area will be Rams RFC. A huge potential catchment area of players and fans, made even bigger by the (relative) ease of travel along the M4. 

But does a club which doesn’t yet have a stand, want to go up to the Championship, let alone the Premiership, let alone put together a squad destined for European rugby’s showpiece?

“We want to go up,” says Gary quite firmly. “I don’t know if we’ll do it this season, it’s all happening a bit fast. And I guess you’d have to go full-time. But if you ask the players if they wanted to go full-time, 95 per cent would say ‘no’. They’ve got good careers, as lawyers, builders, accountants, school teachers. And then there’s the ground issue…”

Gary tails off, only to find fresh impetus… “but we might end up with three or four players going full-time and then we’d just need to work out how we can help the semi-pros and amateur types get the fitness they need. Ground-wise, do we develop here? Or do we ourselves go to the Madejski and do what London Irish weren’t able to do and get 12,000 there, because it’s a bit soulless with 6,000. “Reading’s conurbation is 320-340,000 population, that’s bigger than Exeter! And there’s a lot of wealthy companies, so that’s the next stage, get people’s interest piqued.” 

In the 1700s and the days of Dick Turpin, wealthy travellers would hope to pass through Sonning without having to open their purses. The way Rams are going as a rugby club and, more importantly, how they are going about being a rugby club, the 2020s may see the club flip that dynamic on its head. If they do, seeing Rams RFC in a European Cup Final with 25 per cent of the squad coming through the minis’ section, is not that far-fetched. Another steep ascent it may be, but Rams have consistently shown how quickly they acclimatise to new heights. 

Story by Jack Zorab

Pictures by Daniele Colucciello

This extract was taken from issue 9 of Rugby Journal

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