Royston Rugby under 9 win Saracens A festival

Following on from the team’s recent successes in winning the North Herts festival, Cambridgeshire cup and trophy success at the Wendens festival Royston went to Bramley road the original home of Saracens to play in their prestigious A team festival
Royston’s first game was against the host club Saracens, the boys were massively pumped up for this as the chance to impress against such a prestigious name in the game was all they needed, the huge rush defence of Larson Reid and Rory McAuliffe forced Saracens back time and time again, with Charlie Butler and Max Ramsden ready to pounce on their mistakes, William Green opened the scoring with some good old fashioned brute force, we then varied our play and Charlie Butler danced over, our rush defence forced a wild pass which Max Ramsden intercepted to race into a half time 15-0 lead, the second half started with Saracens heads down Alfie Cockburn added to their misery, then Green again and a lovely flowing move through all pairs of hands saw Larson Reid dot down a final score in the corner for 30-0

The second fixture was against another mighty name in the game – Bedford,
Joe Turkington teased and tormented them with his show and goes and terrific range of passing, Alfie Cockburn was on the end of another flowing move, Turkington slipped down the wing for his own score, Johnathan Weimann who was clearly very under the weather summoned a moment of magic from deep within his reserves to skin three players for a third, Butler roasted them down the wing for a fourth and a dummy of pure beauty saw Green slip through untouched to dot down a fifth, stunned into action Bedford fought back and grabbed a deserved try of their own, with conditions worsening the safe defence of Ben Clarke and Iestyn Hill secured another famous victory

The third fixture was against a huge Amersham and Chiltern side
With both sides undefeated this was clearly the crunch game, they were well drilled, had pace and passed well,
Our rush defence was exceptional giving them no time on the ball at all, Green put in his standard gigantic early hit which was followed by further barnstormers by Ramsden, Cockburn and Weimann, the wide channels were safe with Butler, and Reid patrolling and it was game on, Amersham opened the scoring but William Green’s cheeky dummy brought us back in to it when an outrageous dummy broke the line and a show of unusual pace saw a length of the field score, Amersham came back but a huge defensive effort kept them out, Royston lost Weimann for the day to illness at half time and captain Green had unknowingly damaged his ribs but soldiered on, Charlie Butler’s electric pace gave Royston the lead with a Chris Ashton emulating break, but Amersham came back and after a spell of continued pressure grabbed a try, by now it was a real mud bath, the ball was slippy and the rain drove hard into the boys’ eyes, inches only were gained by either side and hearts were in mouths on the side-lines, Royston’s short ball calls were working well and a great break by Joe turkington took us to within 5 ft of their line, William Green who was clearly suffering hit a fantastic line off the fringe and bulldozed over for an exhilarating try in his final action of the day to secure the win 15-10.

The final fixture was against Royston senior’s traditional rivals Old Grammarians
Having already lost top scorer Green and Weimann the squad was stretched, but the boys played like the champions they are, Rory McAuliffe’s brilliant passing game stretched OG’s all over the pitch, Ben Clarke tackled anything that looked muddy blue, Larson Reid performed his usual heroics in defence and Alfie Cockburn captained the side exceptionally well, Charlie butler danced the left wing to open the scoring, Iestyn Hill made the hard yards and Joe Turkington won numerous turnovers through his tenacious tackling, half time came and went in an instant and Royston were away – Ramsden ran a great line off a short call from McAuliffe to score a try, before a brilliant passing move saw Alfie Cockburn cap off a great day by scoring a great team try in the left hand corner and secure the cup!!

Coach’s Comment
A Hard day against Hard sides, to only concede 3 trys in 4 matches shows how heroic and brave our defence is and the way the kids varied their play to the conditions and opposition was exceptional,
Thank you so much to Ben Clarke to come at short notice when Johnathan was ill, and to play as well as he did against such quality opposition is a true display of the depth of our wonderful squad.