Excellent fight back secures draw

Royston u13's entertained St Ives in a friendly at the Heath. The fixture should have been a Cup game, but St Ives did not have sufficient eligible players, bringing 17 of which 5 were too old. The game was a battle from the start with Ben Mansfield being put in for a try to start the scoring after some early skirmishes. St Ives then came alive and their size and age advantage began to tell with power and intensity at the breakdown. One of their 4 tries came with a dropped ball by Royston in attack which was fly hacked the length of the pitch. At half time the visitors were up 7-24 and Royston were reeling. Royston came alive in the second half and moved the ball well scoring 3 further tries through the backs Mansfield, Euan Rees and George Adam. Rees got two of the conversions. With each try confidence grew and the balance of power shifted. With such a strong second half performance from the whole team man of the match was going to be hard and was given to the scrum half Henry Jones for bossing the game and elusive running. Tom Donnellan came close with a typical brave and powerful display. The whistle went at 24-24 it what was a bruising encounter.