Royston Rugby Club round-up

Cup match

Royston RFC 14

Old Millhillians 16

ROYSTON’S cup campaign ended on Saturday despite a good performance against a strong Old Millhillians side.

With several key figures missing Royston were still able to field a strong team, captained by Jamie Green. The game was a scrappy, tight affair with the first point coming from the visitors who kicked over two early penalties.

However, Royston had been dominating the scrum and when given a five-metre scrum outside the opposition try-line, they used it to good effect forcing Old Millhillians to give away a penalty try, which was converted by Michael Schurch.

But in the final minutes of the half Old Millhillians kicked over another penalty to go into half-time with a two-point lead.

The second half continued to be tight, and it was the visitors who scored the first try of the half after taking a tap penalty.

This put the game out of Royston’s reach, but a kick chase by Schurch to score before the end gave Royston some consolation. Royston Manager Nick Alford said afterwards: “We were brave today, it was a tough game and the wind was blowing hard which didn’t help.”

This weekend six boys from the Royston U14s made their county debuts for Cambridgeshire. William Tyrrell, Tom Raymen, Zac Conley, Joseph Simons, Ashley Jones and Jake Storey travelled to Colchester to play Suffolk in two hard-fought games.

Royston also had Edward Shannon playing in the Elite squad for Premiership side Saracens and the Herts School of Rugby. The club wish to say congratulations to all the boys, who are back on Royston duty this Sunday against Shelford.

Meanwhile, Royston U7s travelled to Haverhill at the weekend, and due to admin error they ended up playing not only their opposite age group, but also Haverhill’s U8 team in a series of round-robin fixtures.

This made little difference to the willing Royston players who promptly went on to win all 16 matches. Coaches Jamie Green and Fergus McAuliffe were extremely proud of the way the children have handled their first few weeks of competitive rugby and are very much looking forward to their next set of fixtures in a couple of weeks.