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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

Rugby's try of the year scored as four brutal hand-offs send players crashing

You're defending an attack on your own 22 metre line. The opposition spreads the ball wide with real intent. Panic stations surely start to set in? Not for Caldy's Nick Royle.

It's newly promoted Caldy v Richmond in the RFU English Championship and the new boys on the block were 26-3 down after just 25 minutes.

But a moment of magic from ex-Widnes man Royle, 38, inspired Caldy to a huge away victory, after a combination of power, stamina and skill saw him cross for an unbelievable score.

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Royle pounced on a loose pass from a Richmond centre, and boy did he get on his bike.

The veteran wing ignited his spellbinding run from just inside his own 22 as a sea of Richmond red, black and yellow players chased after him like a pack of wolves.

Video shows the speedster fending off the first tackler with ease, with the latter crashing to the ground in defeat. The second gets a big hand-off and loses track of Royle.

The ex-England Sevens man jinks inside of the full-back before giving an almighty hand-off to another player who drops like a sack of potatoes.

This barnstorming run is met with a rousing cheer from the crowd, and rightly so. From here Royle chucks the afterburners on and makes for the corner, with two players chomping at his heels.

Despite being tackled he finishes quite superbly into the corner after a yet another hand-off, taking out the flag in the process. This would bring the scores up to 26-15, and would eventually help to inspire a 34-32 Caldy comeback victory, their first ever Championship win to be exact.

The 38-year-old, who will turn 39 after the weekend, has provided himself with quite the birthday present. His try has been raking in the votes for the RFU Championship Try Of The Week, with some suggesting it is actually the best score of the year so far.

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