Heading up to Royston with 16 players, we were for once in the stronger position number wise as Royston only had 11. Rather than have them concede the match and hold some sort of training game, some of our lads stepped forward like men, and agreed to play for the opposition. Well done to Danny, Ollie, Sam (for volunteering even though they didn’t use you in the end), Cameron and Matthew for being big enough to offer themselves forward and play excellently for Royston – you’re a credit to the club and the sport.

The first half saw us start slowly, with some rash passing and poor handling skills in the backs letting us down a little, and leading to some frustration, but soon the boys got into their rhythm and started to gel. The forwards were outstanding today, with the scrums working well and several wins against the head coming from our demon hooker Benjy. Strong rucking from Thomas Beechey, Josh Moffatt and George kept us in the game several times when we might otherwise have lost the ball, and Cameron put in some great tackles later in the half too. Ollie and Danny were playing well for Royston too, putting in big hits and supporting well.

Thomas Paine was a little terrier today harassing his opposite number and putting in some great tackles. His quick reactions at one Royston scrum led to him tackling the opposition fly half before he knew what had hit him, leading to a fumble which Thomas quickly gathered and passed out to Will Goff who side stepped a couple of defenders to cross the line for his first of the day. Callum had a great day too, and after receiving a ball from some lovely passing along the line, and tearing down the right hand side of the pitch, popped a beautiful offload out the back door to Sam on his shoulder, who stormed through several defenders to take a well-constructed try. Will Goff got another later in the half after switching to right wing and outrunning several defenders to finish the half 15-10 up, after we conceded a couple of tries from Royston’s fast and powerful winger earlier in the half.

The second half once again was a close affair for most of it, with tit for tat scoring seeing us stay level for much of the half. Their scores came in several cases from us missing straightforward tackles which we will need to work on, but thankfully our overall attack in the final quarter was stronger than theirs. Josh Bradley doggedly supported Will Goff on one of his runs, and he was there ready to take the offload and carry the ball brilliantly through several defenders to cross the line, injuring his hand in the process (get better soon Josh!). Callum got a well deserved try to add to his Man of the Match performance too, showing excellent communication and support play throughout. Spencer notched up 2 great tries too after putting in a great stint at fly half, and our speed demon Freddy got to fly up on the left wing to notch up another for his tally. Again rucking and scrummaging was strong in the 2nd half, with Danny and Ollie doing great work on their return from the other side! A note here too to Matthew and Cameron who played excellently for Royston in the second half.

Overall, it was a closely fought match which ended up with Datchworth the victors by 40 points to 30. Well played Datchworth Under 13’s, and nice to see the recent work we’ve done on defensive lines on the whole work well, although maybe we need to now work on securing those first tackles to stop leaking relatively easy tries to the opposition.