Royston RFC 29 Quintin 7

ROYSTON showed their strength and depth on Saturday with an emphatic win over Quintin at the Heath despite missing several first team regulars.

Louis Dummett, Chris Bearton, Mark Woodall, Micheal Schurch and Craig Sheppard were all missing but it mattered little as the rest of the squad dominated from start to finish.

Veteran prop Jamie Green and Damien Fouracres enjoyed great games while Jack Sirett made the most of a rare start at No.9 by showing a great range of passing and a good command of the breakdown.

And Morris and Alford were exceptional in the line-out while Jack Hillman was also back in the squad after becoming a father for the first time.

Royston opened the scoring after an exceptionally well-worked line-out was caught and driven by Sam Morris. The retreating Quintin forwards pushed their backline offside and, sensing the opportunity, Rob Turner sliced through the illegal players and offloaded to Tegg who popped out to Pete Collins who scorched in under the posts. Sirett converted.

This was the only score of the half, mainly through Royston’s own ill-discipline as time and again great field position was gained only for the wrong option to be taken or needless penalties given away where Quintin’s big-kicking centres would clear the lines well.

Royston regrouped at half time and went back to the basics of securing good posession and playing the phases which worked into Billy Richardson’s game plan as he drove over two tries from close range with well timed pick-and-goes from three yards out.

Tristian Clegg also scored a great poacher’s try after good work from Turner.

A brief period of scrappy play followed these tries with Royston finding their own ball getting turned over worryingly regularly by much smaller players.

Royston had the final say with a bonus point after Collins raced through to score the final try of the match before converting himself.