DREW Humberstone’s late try helped Rams snatch a dramatic 22-19 victory in atrocious conditions at Tonbridge Juddians.

On a heavy pitch and with the rain falling, it was the home side who made the initial breakthrough as fly-half Tom White slotted a 30-metre penalty after Rams were penalised for not releasing.

However, the visitors rallied and after beginning to gain dominance at the scrum, they opened their account thanks to a smart piece of work from scrum-half Ollie Cole.

He took a quick tap penalty five metres out, and with Henry Bird cutting a fine line from the right, the wing crossed for his seventh score of the season.

Humberstone landed the extras, but Tonbridge responded immediately with a second White penalty to cut the gap to a solitary point.

Juddians then dominated around the half-hour mark, camping in the Rams’ 22 until some brilliant defence – which included one particularly crunching tackle from the outstanding Max Hayman – forced a penalty and the chance to clear.

However, the hosts then hit the front in somewhat fortuitous fashion, a bouncing ball hacked on a couple of times before Tom Nicol collected and touched down to the left of the posts.

White converted for a six-point advantage, only for Humberstone to halve it with a penalty before the interval.

Rams made a disastrous start to the second period as White immediately landed his third penalty, but they hit back with a fortunate score of their own as another unclaimed high ball eventually fell to Ellis Jones.

He broke down the right before off-loading to Bird, whose inside ball was then deftly clipped ahead from just short of the try-line by Jamie Guttridge who managed to get it down just before it ran dead.

The conversion fell short before White landed another long-range penalty to push his side four points ahead again, but Rams then took command in the final quarter.

Dominating both possession and territory, they won a string of penalties inside the 22, only for TJs to manfully repel the charge.

However, with time running out, a magical cross-field kick by young fly-half Rowan Grundy was collected by Jak Rossiter, and after it went through the hands from Jones to Humberstone, the full-back dotted down in the left-hand corner for a 77th-minute lead.

His stunning touchline conversion made it 22-19, and with Rams able to hold their nerve in the closing stages, they closed the game out to halt a two-game losing streak and begin 2022 in a positive fashion.