Starting line-up

1 Shannon Neyland 2 Ren Pesci 3 Rik Relph

4 Bob Copping 5 Chris (Psycho) Edwards

6 Rolando Pesci 7 Chris (The Glove) Milne 8 Stuart (Fabio) Faben

9 Chris (Flora) Beddow 10 Graham Beckford (Capt) 15 John (JB) Bateson

11 Ant Brown 12 Will Cleare 13 Jay Hall 14 Colin Wier

Manager: Graham Beckford

Match report by Eddie Murphy

Snowfall in the early morning was followed by a clear cold day which made standing on the sidelines bitterly cold. The pitch, despite a shaded patch which remained frosty, was able to take a stud and stood up to the game remarkably well. The preparations were scrappy and the Renegades didn't warm up properly before the game started.

Fabio kicked off but didn't go 10 meters. Royston won the scrum and began a period of sustained pressure including some cheeky chips one of which went to touch and one of which was touched down by JB. Good Renegades defense held them out though. Eventually, Renegades found their attacking head and Jay breaking through the middle was denied by the ref having received a forward pass. Rolando also came close after Fabio put Renegades up to the Royston line with a nicely struck penalty.

Eventually the persistence was rewarded and a nice burst from Fabio and Beaky gained a lot of territory. Sustaining this pressure led to a 5m scrum. This fed the ball to Beaky who touched down near the posts. Fabio converted (7-0). Chris Edwards caught the kickoff and sliced through the middle of Royston gaining a lot of ground. Fabio planted a penalty beautifully into the corner. In the pressure that followed, Ren and Chris E. came close to scoring.

The play degenerated for a while and eventually Royston got a penalty that took them into the Renegades 22. They won the lineout and some good passing saw them score in a good position for the conversion which they took also (7-7). This score line lasted until the break.

The half time talk was similar to that against Newmarket - we needed to play the sort of rugby we know we are capable of.

Chris E took the message to heart, caught the kickoff and stormed up the field into the Royston 22 before he was stopped. Others rose to his lead and sustained pressure was rewarded by a try for Colin which was again converted by Fabio (14-7). There was no let up in Renegades pressure and within a few minutes Jay was over for a fine try having cut through the Royston line fed by a nice pass from Beaky. Fabio slotted home his third conversion (21-7). By now the Renegades were on top of the game. Rolando was unfortunate to have a try disallowed. Royston resisted the sustained pressure for a period but eventually another nice feed from Beaky saw Colin score his second try of the game. (26-7).

Royston regrouped and exploited some sloppy defense by the Renegades and landed a try which remained unconverted (26-12). This woke the Renegades and from the kickoff good attacking play and sound passing fed the ball to Ant who fed the Glove who sped away from the Royston defense to score under the posts. (31-12).

The second half was a great improvement on the first half performance.

Try

Graham Beckford 1
Colin Weir 2
Jay Hall 1
Chris Milne 1

Penalty Try

Conversion

Stuart Faben 3

Drop Goal

Nominations

Player of the Match: Chris (Psycho) Edwards. Doughnut of the match: Rik Relph.