Two wins from two games so far

ROYSTON made it two wins from two in the league with a resounding victory away at Old Tottonians on Saturday.

Like Royston, Tottonians also won their opening fixture the previous weekend but that was where the similarities ended as the home side simply had no answer to Royston’s creativity.

Royston had a good mix of youth and power in the pack with some experienced players in their backline against a strong looking Tottonians’ outfield. This never phased the Crows, though, with Michael Schurch spotting an opening in the Old Totts defence within the first two minutes of the game to open the scoring for Royston before converting his own try.

Royston never took their foot off of the gas and within five minutes Kevin Parslow crossed the line after good work by the Royston pack, and the conversion made it 14-0.

Old Totts then held a mini revival, firstly by kicking a penalty to make the score 14-3 before then trying to disrupt the Royston momentum, but after strong running by winger David Ayeliffe the ball fell kindly to Man of the Match Pete Collins to score in the corner.

With the half coming to close Royston were again on the front foot, forcing Old Totts to put the ball down behind their own line to give the crows a five-meter scrum. The Royston forwards sensed the Old Totts pack were tiring and pushed the scrum the full five meters for the No.8 to touch down.

The second half started much the same as the first with Royston dominating the set play for large periods of the game which eventually freed Nick Alford to stretch his legs down the touchline to run around his opposite man and cross the try line for Royston’s fifth try of the game.

Old Totts then tried to bully the young and spritely Royston team, but to no avail, as the only outcome was the sin-binning for their prop.

This resulted in a penalty which Schurch took quickly and managed to run in unopposed to score under the posts, again he converted his own try to take the score to 36-3.

Shortly afterwards Royston again had a penalty on the Old Totts five-meter line before setting up an unstoppable rolling maul which saw the brute strength and power of Alex Hiom to go over the line to open up his account for the season. Schurch converted the try to take the score to 43-3.

Royston maintained possession of the ball for the remainder of the game to close out what was a strong performance to continue their perfect start to the season by taking winning bonus points in both of their opening games.

They now sit at the top of the league and entertain Old Merchant Taylors next Saturday at the Heath.

Meanwhile, Royston II enjoyed a 40-10 victory over local rivals Letchworth III on Saturday.

Letchworth made the short visit to Royston full of confidence following last week’s win over title-holding Saffron Walden but it was Royston who took the lead after just five minutes through Jason Shackleton’s try and Colin Letch’s conversion.

Shackleton scored again shortly afterwards after good work from Simon Weatherstone before the latter also got his name on the score sheet.

Royston added a further score when a good platform was secured by the front row to allow No. 8 Letch to score the easiest of tries before scoring his third of six conversions on the day.

Letchworth were still in the hunt, though, and after a long kick into the wind a Royston full-back got a confused by the bounce which allowed Letchworth to capitalize on the loose ball and score and make it 28-7 at half time.

The second half saw Letchworth make wholesale changes which injected fresh legs into a bruising encounter, but Royston countered this by slowing the game down and using their experience to pin Letchworth in their own half.

Royston put the result beyond doubt when Jamie Green took a pop pass from Paul Rabbetts, before stepping the on-rushing midfield and running 30 yards to touch down.

The final score was good reward for the hard working Brian Bergin who had put in a tireless shift.