Chindits v Royston 2s

The Chindits hosted Royston 2’s at a bright and sunny Silver Leys today and were determined to defeat the only team to beat them twice in the league last season.

Having lost our regular wingers to the 3’s earlier in the week there were some last minute changes to the line-up with Olllie LB also making the trip to Ampthill to give the 3’s some cover on the bench.

This left the 4’s with an experienced but potentially less mobile team than anticipated but it was great to see Tom Caulfield and Tom Brent doing the right thing for the team and happily agreeing to play on the wings.

The pre-game talk focused on keeping things tight in the forwards, not over committing at the breakdown and ensuring that we didn’t leave any gaps in the defensive line for Royston to exploit.

Stortford won the toss and opted to play against the sun and Royston got the game underway.

It would be fair to say that this was more or less the only possession that Royston had in the first half.

Jack FP gathered the kick and ran it back at Royston. The forwards worked hard at the rucks and supported each other well and Brownie and Sam Stockley distributed the ball to Stu Thomas and Aran who got it out to Tom Caulfield who crashed over for a try.

This signalled a period of intense offensive play from the Chindits with complete dominance in the line-out, securing the ball on our own scrum which led to Stortfords forwards and backs barreling over for try after try.

This included a couple for Josh Prime with Tom Caulfield, Arran getting one each and Jake Brough also scoring a couple before half time. There may have been more and other people may have scored but it was tricky keeping track.

The only blot on the copy book was a penalty gifted to Royston by not rolling away at the tackle and some back chat to the ref giving them an additional 10 metre advantage to slot the penalty.

At the halftime whistle Stortford were 30 odd points to the good to Roystons 3.

At half time Stortford talked about not taking their foot off the gas and continuing to starve Royston of the ball.

Whatever was said in the Royston camp at half time saw them start the second half more brightly and they did a good job at keeping the ball for periods of time. The Stortford defence was tested and held firm with Royston not making it into the Stortford 22.

When Stortford had the ball they looked really dangerous and started to spread it wide. This led to a few handling errors but when it did come together also led to a couple more decent team tries.

As the game progressed Stortford’s physicality started to tell and Royston picked up a couple of injuries. The Royston captain called it a day at the 65 minutes mark.

The final score was 51-3.

Special thanks should be given to Paul Byrne and Andy Southgate who both played hooker for Royston for 40 minutes a piece. Without them, all scrums would have been uncontested.

There were a number of candidates for man of the match with Aran, Dan Hunt, Stu Thomas, Sam Stockley, Tom Caulfield, Jake Brough and Tom Brent all standing out for making good yards. In the forwards Max Oliver and Billy Mahony made a real nuisance of themselves, Josh Prime was brushing people off left right and centre and Dave Walker was everywhere in support but man of the match went to Jack FP who, in addition to scoring a couple of tries, was like a man possessed in the second half and put in some huge first up tackles stopping Royston in their tracks and largely pinning them back in their own half until the game was brought to an end.

This was a great performance and a much needed win for the 4’s and we need to take this form and style of play into our game at Barnet Elizabethans.