Cheshunt visit Royston

Cheshunt visited Royston on a winters day which thankfully was only cold with a slight drizzle but not much wind on the heath.

The two squads were evenly matched although Royston were down to 16 available players on the day which was quite rare. Since playing Cheshunt at the Herts festival last year where it was also evenly matched, Cheshunt have improved a lot so the game was very competitive. The difference between the sides probably came down to Cheshunt being slightly better in converting their opportunities.

Overall the players were very physical with good work in the breakdown and scrum. Royston struggled to get pace on the ball at times which meant that we were putting pressure on ourselves though lack of space and time. When we did put pace on the ball and ran put the ball though the hands we made good ground and were effective so more from the players on that with straighter running lines and we will see lots of benefit from the play.

We did not concede many penalties today which was great. Our shape is improving a lot with each game both in attack and defence - more to do on defence speed off the line to make sure it is all aligned and putting pressure on the opposition. All around we saw good performances with some very good performances from the players new to the game (Bream, Gardner, Ellis-Crease).

Thank you to Cheshunt head coach who stepped into Referee due to late cancellation of the booked ref.