Heavy away defeat leaves Spalding rooted to bottom

On paper Spalding looked to be fielding a good solid team with the return of James West at fly half and Mark Haighton, with his lineout experience, partnering Ash Piccaver at lock.

Following last week’s excellent performance at number eight, Tom Duerden continued in the position with Harry Brown coming into contention on the bench following injury which had kept him out of all the league games.

The Spalding squad had a good pre-match warm up but, as the game started, Melbourne immediately brought a higher level of intensity.

Within the first couple of minutes a penalty given against Spalding saw the home team immediately three points up.

Melbourne’s confidence flowed and it was no surprise that the first try was scored by their flanker and, with a successful conversion, they had a 10 point margin after just five minutes.

The next score went to Spalding as James West stepped up for a successful penalty kick from out wide.

The restart saw Melbourne capitalise on possession to work their way up field. A quick pass from a ruck saw the centres make space for the right winger to score easily.

The next phases of play saw Spalding have a succession of lineout opportunities deep into Melbourne’s territory and each one was lost which was difficult to comprehend with three good lineout jumpers on the field.

By contrast the home team’s lineout was dominated by their lock, who won his ball every time.

Scrum half Will Shields, who had been battling away putting in a high tackle count, sustained a kick to the head and was replaced by Richard Cooke with Jason Steels coming off the bench into the back row.

Melbourne were into their rampaging best with their forwards and backs combining and a further try and penalty kick followed to increase their half-time lead to 27-3.

Brown came off the bench at lock replacing Harry Waine and it was not long before he was in a passage of play instigated by a thrusting run from Steels.

Brown’s offload saw Duerden take the ball at pace five metres out as he charged over with West converting.

Not long after Harry Winch on a crash ball move saw him held up on the line.

Later Spalding were encamped for several minutes on Melbourne’s line, using their forwards to pick and drive but the movement finally died out due to poor execution.
Surprisingly in the second half Spalding’s scrum was going well, taking a couple of balls against the head.

Melbourne, with ball in hand, were regularly pulling Spalding’s defence apart with their backs playing at pace and power.

They were also helped by some poor tackles with players tiring as they ran in a further five tries.

During the game there was a big contrast with the home team playing with confidence, winning nearly all their first phase possession followed by excellent execution in their moves, especially the backs.

In contrast Spalding had at least half-a-dozen excellent field positions close to the try line but failed to convert into points, lacking the confidence to execute and faith in the ability.

There were still some good performances with Steels, the Nomads captain who was called up at the last minute, standing out with his forceful running and his appetite to tackle in defence. West’s kicking ability from hand brought an element of relief when under pressure and gained good territory with his penalty kicks to touch.

Saturday’s home game against local rivals Newark has now become a ‘must win’ to kick start Spalding’s season.

Spalding: John Barrett, Sam Cowell, Josh Caley, Ash Piccaver, Mark Haighton, Richard Cooke, Harry Waine, Tom Duerden, Will Shields, James West, Gavin Sharman, Harry Winch, George Brown, Huw Sharman, Tom Winch. Subs: Gareth Osborne, Harry Brown, Jason Steels.