Royston bounce back with win at Ickenham

Ickenham 3 Royston 13

AFTER the disappointment of a fortnight ago, Royston were keen to get back to winning ways against Ickenham – and they did just that.

With two regular players having to pull out of the team at the last minute, Rob Turner stepped in after returning from injury.

Saturday’s game was a different story from previous weeks and Ickenham must have done their homework as they put out a monster scrum against the youthful Royston pack who were heavily outweighed. This meant it was difficult for the Royston forwards to be their normal dominant selves but that was not an issue as the backline stepped up to the plate in style.

Royston’s first try arrived on 15 minutes when Chris Ball gathered a loose ball before running fully 50 meters before touching down. The conversion was missed, though.

Ickenham’s pack was strong and the Royston forwards were unable to dominate like they would have liked. Before the half ended, Chris Bearton gave away a penalty in front of the posts which the Ickenham fly-half gladly kicked to make it 5-3.

The second half was much of the same. Royston’s second try came from another Ickenham mistake when a misdirected kick was picked up and beautifully offloaded by Ball to Peter Collins who stretched to place the ball over the line. Royston played simple rugby in the last 20 minutes and even kicked a last-minute penalty to end on a high.

Next week Royston play host to Uxbridge with the match kicking off at 2.30pm.