Sat 3 Oct 2026
Royston hosted Biggleswade for round 2 of their debut season in Counties 1.
The early exchanges were a little nervy, with both sides trying to establish their own style of play.
Royston opened the scoring with a strong driving maul, pulling Biggleswade’s defence narrow. The backs then went to work, getting the ball wide to Daniel Ritsema to score, with Harry Moss adding the conversion.
Biggleswade responded well with a well-worked try of their own to make it 7-5.
Royston got the next score with another strong driving maul, with Seth Cakebread breaking off and carrying over the last defenders. Harry Moss again added the extras.
Biggleswade fought back again to make it 14-12.
An injury to Daniel Ritsema saw a reshuffle in the back line, and Harry Moss added a further 3 points from a penalty to make the score 17-12 at half-time.
A bump to substitute John Brain saw another Royston reshuffle, and sustained Biggleswade pressure had Royston pinned in their own half for the first 15 minutes of the second half. No. 8 William Green really came to the fore with some bone-crunching tackles and excellent physicality to hold Biggleswade at bay.
Eventually, the pressure told and Biggleswade grabbed a third try to make the score 17-17.
This roused Royston, and they went into multiple attacking phases. Frustratingly, an unsighted ref missed an offside player intercepting a pass and racing the length of the pitch to give Biggleswade a 17-22 lead.
To further hamper Royston, they lost scrum-half Felix Forbes McNeil to a yellow card shortly after this for a high tackle.
The 14 men fought back, and fly-half Tom Green saw just enough daylight to get the ball wide to Conall Graham, who got into a foot race with his opposite winger and scored in the corner to make it 22-22 with just minutes left to play.
Royston got back into their attacking mindset and, back to 15 players, started to stretch a tiring Biggleswade.
After multiple phases of attack, a Biggleswade player strayed offside and Harry Moss delighted the large crowd by sending the penalty straight between the posts to put Royston ahead 25-22.
With less than a minute to play, Biggleswade kicked short. Veteran Will Phillips fielded the ball, and Royston sensibly took three very long phases of play before gleefully kicking the ball dead and continuing their impressive start to the season.
