The first ever North Herts Mini Rugby Festival took place at Letchworth on Sunday. It was the second time Letchworth have hosted a major junior rugby festival this year – following the Herts Girls Sevens in May – and again it was an outstanding success.

The first ever North Herts Mini Rugby Festival took place at Letchworth on Sunday.

It was the second time Letchworth have hosted a major junior rugby festival this year - following the Herts Girls' Sevens in May - and again it was an outstanding success.

This time more than 300 children from clubs across the district competed in events at all age groups from under-seven to under-12.

Played in mixed weather conditions, all the teams played a series of pool games, followed by semi-finals, finals, and third place play-off games.

Datchworth beat Royston 25-20 in the final of the under-sevens competition.

Royston beat Letchworth in the under-eights final by the same score.

The under-nines was a stalemate with the title only won by Stevenage on the basis of most tries scored overall in the earlier rounds following a 0-0 with Datchworth.

In the under-10s final Royston beat Datchworth 20-10, while Datchworth under-12s drew 12-12 with Letchworth, winning the title on greater accrued points score in earlier rounds.

The host club finally lifted a title when Letchworth's under-11s narrowly defeated a talented Royston team by a single conversion (7-5) after scoring more points than any other side in their pool games. They fielded the same team throughout the day due to the lack of available subs.