On Sunday Weston U14s welcomed Royston to The Fortress with aspirations to
continue the growth shown in last week’s game and put a W on the board at home.
Royston won the toss opting to kick the ball with Weston playing downhill in the first
half. The game started strongly with the ball being distributed nicely down the line by
both teams and a lot of big hitting tackles being made, Weston showing their
dominance up front while Royston showed off their talents in the backline, a great
line break was made by Royston only to be chased down and stopped short by a
brilliant tackle by the Weston fullback, Jake. The pressure continued and
unfortunately, Weston never really seemed to get into full swing of the game and
eventually conceded the opening try to Royston who added the conversion for the
extra two.
Weston came back at and kept pushing forward, showing dominance in
the scrums and some big carries, but Royston’s defensive line was very quick at
shutting down the space, despite some blistering breaks on the outside from Dylan,
Weston was just unable to get across the line. Royston’s second try came about
from a little confusion, the ref awarded a penalty to Royston and while explaining the
reason for the penalty, a quick witted Roystonian took a quick tap and darted through
the Weston players to dot down their second, the conversion was missed, however.
Weston came back and kept testing Royston, with several penalties going either
way, eventually with Weston captain, Jack, taking a quick tap penalty and sliced
through three Royston defenders to touch down in the corner! Harry stepped up for
the conversion which was on target but because of the difficult angle unfortunately
the kick didn’t quite have the distance. The game continued in much the same flow
with mistakes coming from both sides and Weston not ever getting into top speed.
Royston’s third try came from a splitting run that opened the defensive back line and
no one in the back field to stop had an easy walk in under the posts, but the kicker
failed to add the extra two. Weston began to stage a comeback with some charging
runs from the forwards and the backs moving the ball around elegantly and trying to
exploit spaces, but unable to capitalise on the opportunities. Weston was reduced to
14 players after flanker, Lee was sent to the sin bin for an unfortunate high tackle,
with less than ten minutes to go it felt the conclusion was forgone, but Weston kept
the pressure on pinning Royston back in their 22, but again, some big tackles from
Royston kept Weston from crossing the line again, final score 5-17 to Royston.
Man of the Match was awarded to Karam, who had an outstanding performance in
the number 2 shirt, dominating in the scrums and lineouts, tireless work around the
field and some great carries, well done Karam!
Next week we welcome Hertford to The Fortress
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