Barnet U-17 24 Royston 15 ON A beautiful day for running rugby, a strong Royston side took to the field against a traditionally strong north London club. Despite having to play a number of people in new positions – Lewis Watson doing very well with his

Barnet U-17 24 Royston 15

ON A beautiful day for running rugby, a strong Royston side took to the field against a traditionally strong north London club.

Despite having to play a number of people in new positions - Lewis Watson doing very well with his first game at hooker and Aiden Towner stepping up from the younger age group Royston consistently played the multi-phase rugby.

Having weathered the early attacks from the opposition, Royston started to get a grip on the game and the backs in particular looked very sharp, with Ben Ritsema breaking the line regularly.

Unfortunately the Barnet full back, fielding a wayward kick to touch, ran the ball back 50metres breaking too many tackles.

He was stopped only yards short of the try line by a typical covering tackle by scrum half Adam Smith but the field position was too good and Barnet muscled over for the first try.

Other than the occasional strong run from Barnet, Royston snuffed out the home sides attacks very quickly, with George Elbourn tackling everything that came down the blind side.

Fed with consistent ball from the line out, Royston started to make inroads into the Barnet half and came away with points when Will Cottrell slotted home a penalty.

Then came the try of the match; the forwards won quick ball over several phases, the Royston centres combined well to put Ben Ritsema through a gap and when he was tackled by the full back, Mills looped round and sprinted past the remaining cover. Cottrell converted to take Royston into a deserved half-time lead.

Unfortunately in the second half the home pack tightened their grip on the game, this possession led to field position and too often led to points.

Royston never gave up and despite living off scraps of possession, continued to play the better rugby.

Another flowing move led to Darren Graver being given space to run into and the county sprinter scored his maiden try for the club.