Newbold on Avon 41 Spalding 14
The first 25 minutes saw Spalding playing like a top league team away at Newbold on Avon who were lying fourth in the league, with the forwards and backs combining to dominate the home team.
Indeed for the first ten minutes Spalding applied so much pressure whilst retaining possession that Newbold did not get out of their own half.
The forwards were leading the charge with big carries from Luke Turner, Dominic Broadhead, making his debut, and Tom Rollinson, with flanker Will Shields always first to be breakdown to support and secure the ball.
Encamped ten metres from the Newbold try line, prop Sam Cowell received a pass from scrum half Ben Shields and drove forward through four defenders to open the scoring, and with Conall Mason converting Spalding had the early lead.
Steadily the home team came into the picture using their big carriers, but Spalding were still flowing with Lachlan Summers always making yards and setting up ruck possession.
Whilst in the lineout both Will Shields and Henry Hobson were doing well retaining lineout possession
Another Spalding flowing attack looked likely to stall as Newbold’s backs were pushing up in defence but Mason chipped the ball over, chased down, collected the ball on the bounce to score under the posts and with a simple conversion Spalding were leading by 14 points.
The home team now started to respond and with some powerful running, a scrum was conceded on Spalding’s five metre line.
A pick up and drive made for the line, but the tackling defenders held the ball up for a try line drop out.
However, Newbold came straight back to open their scoring by their enormous prop who burst through a number of tackles.
The game was now end to end but Spalding were on a warning from the referee on the number of penalties and offsides starting to mount up, and Will Shields going too quickly down the side of a ruck resulted in a yellow card.
Summers was still leading the charge making inroads and Yogi Schrauwer, from the seconds, in at lock, was standing up to the challenge, but with seven minutes to half time the tables were completely turned.
Broadhead went down with a leg injury being replaced by Alex Worth. Then Summers was yellow carded by the referee for a high tackle and at the same time Cowell came off injured replaced by Cameron Fraser.
With two players down and a reshuffled team, the home side took full advantage and ran in three tries before half time to lead by 14 points.
The second half saw uncontested scrums, a red card to a Newbold player for a dangerous tackle and Turner yellow carded for complaining to the referee about a dangerous stamping by Newbold at a ruck.
Meanwhile in a disjointed second half, the home team added a further try and a couple of penalties.
Spalding will need to get back to winning ways at home next week against Peterborough Lions (kick off 2.15pm) to retain the safety of their mid table league position.
Team: Sam Cowell, Tom Rollinson, Luke Turner, Henry Hobson, Yogi Schrauwer, Dominic Broadhead, Will Shields, Lachlan Summers, Ben Shields, Harry Brett, Sam Christie, Conall Mason, Gav Sharman Ollie Machin, Henry Duce. Subs: Alex Worth, Cameron Fraser.
Pictures by Adrian Smith.
