Hornets sting in the tail at Hulton Moor Park saw Rams unbeaten National League 3 South West start to the season abruptly halted.
Wing Jermaine Jones proving Rams downfall into second-half injury time as his mazey, try scoring, run and conversion enabled the home side to roar ahead, 20-18, and, minutes later, he again opened up the visitors defence to send in scrum half Conor Littlewood for the final unconverted score to end the match.
It was the first ever encounter between the two clubs and proved to be Rams first defeat of the season in five outings against a young, well-organised, team who've risen through the ranks with three promotions in four seasons.
Rams certainly didn't get it all their own way in the tight for a change, while they failed to dominate the line-outs and, behind the pack, the Rams backs were troubled, constantly, by a well-organised three-quarter line.
An angry skipper Andy Amor told his disconsolate side afterwards: “We made a pledge this season that we are going up so remember how this feels! No one wants to lose! With eight minutes to go, to see the game out, we didn't look after the ball, we didn't go along with our presentation and we threw the ball away instead of looking after it. There was too many errors and too many mistakes!”
Perhaps the writing was on the wall for Rams from the kick-off as, in the rain, scrum half James Brooks dropped his kick short of the home sides 10 metre line to hand Hornets the put-in to the opening scrum of the match.
But, as it turned out, it was Rams who enjoyed the lions share of possession early on and putting the home side under pressure with some strong runs from centre Steve Bryant, man of the match Azza Hopkins and his back-row colleague and No.8 Gus Davies.
With the rain easing off, however, it was Hornets who found the pot at the end of the rainbow when, following a great break from centre Adam Francis, Rams conceded a penalty for going offside and Jones banged over his kick for a 3-0 lead against the run of play,
But Rams reply came five minutes later with a little bit of individual brilliance from fly half Luke Flower who, seizing on a loose ball in the Hornets 10 metre area, slotted through a neat grubber kick towards the left-hand corner and won the chase to the touchdown ahead of full back Joe Gadd who dislocated his shoulder in the process of tackling Flower.
Brooks couldn't add the wide-angle conversion but was back in action, minutes later, after prop Matt Weller was illegally stooped in his tracks close to the home line and he slotted the 26th minute penalty for an 8-3 lead.
But, it was level pegging by half-time and following the first of Rams two yellow cards, rather harshly handed out by referee Chris Thomas, to centre David Massey for a late tackle.
With tempers up front also fraying and resulting in a Hornets penalty it was booted to Rams five metre line and, from the ensuing ruck, the ball went out along the line to wing Andrew Weller to power over.
Jones missed with his conversion and the sides went to half-time all-square at 8-8.
The game was now, however, held up for some 20 minutes in all as the ambulance arrived and had to use the neat and tidy pitch to reach the injured Gadd away in a far corner.
When it did resume it was the visitors who, now back up to 15, struck within minutes winning a penalty for not releasing at a ruck and Brooks handed his team mates a fragile, 11-8 lead.
While the game again turned a little nasty when Davies found himself battling against five of the opposition normal service was resumed and it was Rams who increased their lead soon after when the referee awarded them a 59th minute penalty try, converted by Brooks, as the home side constantly dropped the scrum to prevent Rams scoring.
While Brooks missed with a further penalty kick 10 minutes later it was the tenacious home side and formidable wing Jones who took the plaudits as Hopkins and home hooker cum flanker Chris Francis were both yellow carded and Jones sealed the points for the home side, converting his own touchdown and a second for Littlewood to end the match.
It was not a good day all round for Rams who lost Polish international lock Mickal Kruzycki early in the second half with a recurrence of a left shoulder injury that threatens his chance of playing for his country against Holland this coming weekend.
The defeat drops Rams to fourth in the table some seven points behind leaders Exmouth with Hornets second, two points behind the leaders and Rams opposition at the Old Bath Road ground this Saturday, Newton Abbot, 2-30pm kick-off, now in third place.
Rams, in fact, are one of three teams on 20 points but, along with fifth placed Brixham, do still have a game in hand on the top three.

Rams: Duffelen; Poole, Bryant, Massey, Foxley; Flower, Brooks; Weller, Henderson, Baker; Bryson, Kruzycki; Amor (c), Hopkins, Davies. Reps – Crame, Hughes, Mann.

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