Mick Jones says Royston are not looking beyond Saturday’s London & SE Junior Vase semi-final clash with Essex League One side Maldon despite a potential trip to Twickenham looming on the horizon.

Victory over Maldon, who have won their last seven games in all competitions, would see the Crows just two games from the home of English rugby, with a clash against the winners of the south-west area one of those games standing in their way

Unsurprisingly head coach Jones is not getting ahead of himself though and believes the Maldon clash will be as tough as they’ve encountered in this year’s competition.

Jones told the Crow: “It [Twickenham] has been murmured around the group but I’m trying to keep people focussed on this game.

“We are expecting a hard game against Maldon so we don’t want to look any further than this weekend.

“We’ve beaten some good sides in the competition so far, and Maldon are the same level as us, so we want to continue that run.

“If we progress then we’ll look at the next side that comes up.”

Royston enter this weekend on the back of a Herts/Middlesex One home victory, 15-8 over Barnet Elizabethans on Saturday, but Jones was not overally pleased with his side’s showing.

He continued: “I hope they [Maldon] came to have a look at us on Saturday because we were terrible.

“Even though we got the win we were really poor.

“We just didn’t really get going. We still got the win but it was probably our worst performance of the season.

“A lot of us are keen on this competition now because we probably can’t get promoted so some people were getting ahead of themselves and thinking about that chance to get to Twickenham and maybe even getting some silverware so I think they [the players] were distracted.

“We’re hoping that’s out of the system ahead of Saturday.”

Jones has previous in the national competition having made the Junior Vase regional final with his former side Old Cantabrigians and he wants to use the momentum the run to the semi-finals has created to put Royston ‘on the map’.

Jones said: “This is a great opportunity to get Royston on the map and to get players progressing and getting them through the youth system.

“It’s a massive day for the club and hopefully we can deliver.”

The game is being held at Drapers Farm Sports Club, Heybridge, Maldon, Essex, CM9 4QT. Kick-off is 2pm.