Royston hit the road once more this weekend as they made the short trip to face Stevenage Town, with both teams looking to kick-start their seasons with their first victories of the season. Again, Royston turned to youth to bolster their squad as under 18 player Tom Donnellan made his first team debut at openside flanker.

Playing up the considerable slope in the first half, Royston started positively against their bulkier opponents, retaining possession and trying to go through the phases. At scrum time, they held their own against essentially what was a Sherman tank pushing down the slope at them, and it was from one of these scrums that Royston made the initial breakthrough. A quick 8-9 move between Joe Butcher and scrum half Adam Smith allowed Smith to break the initial line of defence and head deep into Stevenage territory, where he found flanker Lee Gilbert in support, who in turn found returning centre Chris Ellis to beat the cover defence and touch down out wide. Conversion missed by Smith, but Royston were on the up. As expected, Stevenage responded in kind and began to make their own trundles into Royston territory, and it was only a timely interception from second row Jon Brain that prevented a potential try and got Royston back into Stevenage territory. Shortly after, the Stevenage tighthead saw yellow for a kick at Butcher and Royston prepared to take advantage of the extra man. However, Stevenage had other ideas, and after a considerable period of pressure, their centre crashed through the midfield and dotted down near the posts for a simple conversion, Royston 7-5 in arrears. It’s from this point that Royston’s once fabled defence began to fall apart, with several loose kicks being followed up by even looser defensive lines, and before they knew it, Royston were 24-5 behind on the scoreboard as Stevenage scored three quick tries in succession. This was coupled by the loss of hooker Jonno Whittingham and second row Alex Bodrozic to injury after several hard carries, Theo Pow and Max Finney introduced in their place whilst Royston tried to re-group. To their credit, Royston upped their effort in the closing stages of the half and really took the game to Stevenage. Several hard carries by the forwards, with Jamie Green, Charlie Sparkes and Donnellan at the forefront got Royston to within inches of the line, but unfortunately Royston were turned over and the teams turned around with Royston still 24-5 down.

At half-time, several harsh words were delivered by Coach Gallagher and Captain Ben Ritsema as Royston knew they weren’t giving all they could, and could easily get themselves back into the game with an increase in intensity and defensive effort. The returning Ollie Brookes replaced the injured Brain and Royston got back on the paddock with the slope now in their favour.

In a similar vein to last week, Royston once again were slow out of the blocks, and Stevenage’s first real possession of the half, coupled once again by little defensive organisation by Royston, allowed their centre to ghost through the midfield and beat the cover defence from the half way line, Stevenage now 29-5 ahead. This finally breathed life into Royston, and they enjoyed their best period of the game as ball was spread from wing to wing as they finally began to get outside their opponents and make significant yardage, with outside half Will Cottrell beginning to control things in the midfield. With Royston deep in Stevenage territory, the ball was spread wide to wing James O’Sullivan, who managed to grubber the ball ahead and touch down in the corner for a difficult conversion that was missed. However, straight from the kick off Royston probably scored the try of the game. The ball was fielded well by Brookes who offloaded to Finney to carry hard into the Stevenage midfield. Quick ball allowed Cottrell to put centre Matt Bryant into space as he broke the Stevenage line and continued to draw in several defenders before offloading back inside to the supporting Cottrell, who juggled the ball expertly enough to commit the Stevenage full back before passing to Gilbert to canter in from thirty yards and score near the posts. The easy conversion allowed Royston to pull back to 29-17, with the momentum now clearly in their favour, and they almost scored again. Excellent hands in midfield by Butcher and Pow put winger Max Ayliffe into space on the right hand touch line and he carried to within five yards of the Stevenage line. The ball was recycled quickly but once again the ball was turned over on the try line and the chance was gone, which seemed to snap Stevenage back into life. Again they took the game to Royston, and even with a generally improved defensive effort, still managed to break through crucial last tackles and score once again out wide to take their lead to 34-17 with about ten to play. Royston now knew that their minimum target was another try for a bonus point, and this is what they set out to achieve. Better ball retention allowed Royston to get their danger runners such as Ritsema, O’Sullivan and Ellis into more space, and quick recycling from a ruck allowed Cottrell to break the line and head towards the Stevenage try line, before finding Smith in able support to take the ball and dive over the whitewash for that bonus point try. The missed conversion meant Royston were 12 behind with just a few minutes to play. As Royston threw caution to the wind in search of yet more rewards, the game naturally became very broken, and Stevenage managed to score two late tries to take the score out to 44-22 with no way back for Royston. The only crumb of comfort for the lads was an absolutely monstrous hit on the replacement Stevenage wing by Brookes, which put the poor lad in ward four of Lister Hospital just across the road (unfortunately for him, that was the maternity ward).

A chastening defeat for Royston and plenty to work on in training this week before their first home game of the season against Finchley next week. The first two games have shown that we can compete at this level, especially from an attacking point of view, and an improvement in fitness, organisation and defence will surely get Royston that first win of the season very soon. Special mention goes to Donnellan for an excellent debut.