Herts Festival

The u12 Herts Festival was held at Harpenden this year on Mothers Day and the players delivered a day I hope the moms all enjoyed, albeit that the day only ended with our last game finishing around 3:20pm. The weather was great and so to was the rugby played. We were in a pool with Chess Valley, Datchworth, Fullerians A, Hertford B and Cheshunt - all teams we have not played this season, or ever. The pool was hotly contested with each team playing 5 games of 6 minutes each way.

Our first game was against Chess Valley. The first half was a close affair (1-1) however in the second half our handling and very good support lines came into play with the result being a 3-1 win to Royston. That set up the team with confidence in each other and the style they wanted to play.

Second game was against Datchworth which again was very even at half time (0-0) however we did not execute our overlaps in the first half. Second half the players executed them brilliantly, with very good support play and came away with a 2-0 win.

Our 3rd game was a very defensive game. We made errors against Fullerians - the positive side of this is that the players were making errors because they we trying things which was great to see. Defensively the players were immense and this was evident when we were able to repel 4 or 5 attacks, one after another on our goal line, to come away with the ball and clear to touch. Out of the 12 minutes we had the ball for about 2 minutes, created an opportunity and took it to win 1-0.

Our 4th game was against Hertford B. After both teams being messed around with pitch changes and schedule running late the game kicked off. As a complete performance this was the teams best of the day. The defence was great. The attacking play with the ball moving through hands, offloads out of the contact to players talking the ball at pace was a delight to see. We came away with a 4-1 win.

Our last game was against Cheshunt with both team at this point unbeaten. It was a very physical close game and it felt like the team that scored first would get the upper hand - due to very good defensive work and hard support running lines Royston scored first. That gave us more confidence and we soon added a second which gave us the headroom we needed in the second half as Cheshunt came back on us. The defence was great and stopped the attacks however eventually succumbing to a last minute try to Cheshunt with final score 2-1 to us.

Overall the squad were fantastic without the ball, trusting each other in defence. With the ball they were very good with fantastic support on each shoulder - this has come from the tremendous work they have put into the drills over the season. Nearly all their tries came from moving the ball through the hands and creating opportunities through some very good running lines but then executing overlaps very well. Added to this was the fact that when the ball did go to ground it was well protected and shifted fast by our scrummies. Well done to all and a big thank you to all the Mom's would chose to watch the rugby - I think they were pleased.