Three late tries earn the 1stXV a bonus win to go third.

For much of the second half, BE had been camped in the Royston 22 - the stats for the second 40 would have shown 85% possession and territorial advantage - but the score-board did not show this superiority as they threw wild passes out, when there were clear overlaps, could not ground the ball when charging over the goal-line three times and, even more recklessly, took no advantage of Royston having two players in the sin-bin at one time in the second half. But, as they say, all's well that ends well.

After failing with a penalty goal attempt, early on, BE went behind when the hosts found a gap in their defence to run in a converted try. However, BE responded quickly with the forwards pounding their opponent's line before releasing the backs where ROBBIE CAMERON-STAFF eased his way through for an unconverted try. BE were not firing on all cylinders in the first 40, despite JAMES ORAM and MATT GREENWOOD winning most of the lineout ball and, when the forwards rumbled in the maul, their drives uphill were well controlled by LLOYD MORGAN although little actual gain was made. They went further behind with a home penalty to trail 5-10 at the interval.

On the restart, BE took almost total control as they ran hard downhill and should have scored readily. They did go further behind when Royston kicked a penalty but CHARLIE MAYS reduced the scoreline to 13-8 with a penalty. The half continued in similar vein with BE pounding away at Royston in the away 22 but failing to put points on the board as loose passes were made, some into opposition's hands, or the ball was kicked away needlessly. Royston, on two occasions, bad mouthed the referee so were down to 13 men for over five minutes but BE could still not score until an innocuous move down the left wing saw ADRIAN TODD make room to score the levelling try (13-13). From there, and with the clock ticking down from 75 minutes, BE sensed they could win. A long chip kick from SANJAY DEWAN, for his winger to chase, went too far into the touch-in-goal area but a couple of wicked bounces took it away from the home No 9 and there was ROBBIE CAMERON-STAFF to pounce and put BEs into the lead for the first time (18-13). There had been earlier, unsuccessful, moves from five metre line-out ball but BE went for one last line-out which JAMES ORAM won, the pack surrounded the ball and piled over the line where LLOYD MORGAN was credited with the try. MATT HARRIS added the extra two points.

BE start the second half of the League programme this Saturday, when Verulamians are the visitors to Byng Road: ko is 2.15pm. BE won the away game 25-5 in September.

PGY