First win of the season for Royston

Royston got their first win of their league campaign with a home victory against Cheshunt on Saturday.

Royston began the game poorly, with most of the first-half being played just outside their try line.

However for all their possession and dominance, Cheshunt were only able to score a drop goal due to a solid and robust Royston defence.

At half-time Royston got the kick they needed as the came out the second period a completely different team.

Straight from the restart Billy Richardson collected the ball and drove through the opposition to almost set up a try.

Royston took confidence from this and it wasn’t long before Richardson got another chance to run at the defence, this time scoring under the posts. Church was successful with the conversion.

The Royston forwards were dominating the Cheshunt pack, with particularly good work from Jonathan Whittingham at the break downs.

This pressure soon paid off as the Royston backs began to see gaps opening up, which Ben Ritsema took advantage of to score his second try of the season. The conversion was unsuccessful.

Cheshunt were crumbling under the constant pressure and when Sam Morris kept stealing ball from the opposition line out, Lee Gilbert was able to take advantage to score under the posts, a score which this time was converted.

With the game all but wrapped up, there was just enough time left for Richardson to touch down after the Royston forwards set up a rolling maul from a line out.

Coach Rob Turner said: “It was an important win for us today, we’ve proved we can win in this league. Now we need to build on this.”