Huntingdon & District 48
Spalding RFC 0
Harry Sharman was man-of-the-match in his Spalding RFC first team return on Saturday – but it was another day to forget as Huntingdon and District eased to a convincing Midlands One East win.
The 48-0 defeat will rank as one of the worst of Town’s league losses so far this season, with the Memorial Field seeing their winless run drag on for a 16th week.
But the performance of former skipper Sharman, who hadn’t featured in more than four months, was a welcome boost.
With captain Ryan Chappell absent due to work commitments, Sam Cooke lead the team onto the field – and with a strong wind and the slope of the pitch in their favour in the first period, there was an air of expectation for the travelling supporters that this could be a winning day.
The opening exchanges of the match were fairly inconclusive with both sets of forwards battling out for possession.
Huntingdon, however, were closing space down extremely quickly and centres Sion Williams and George Brown were unable to find any room to run with ball in hand.
Despite Spalding having the edge, it was the hosts who opened the scoring midway through the first half with the ball spread out to their right winger Barney West to outpace the cover defence for a converted try.
Coach Andy McMahon called a tactical change with scrum half Will Shields being replaced by the experienced Ben Williams and Josh Caley coming off the bench into the front row.
Still, Town’s ball retention was proving not to be up to the mark, handing possession and field position over to the home team.
Huntingdon benefited ten minutes later when their forward drove effectively on for a further converted try.
To have been in with a shout of winning the match, Spalding needed to have been in the lead at half time. Instead, they found themselves battling to survive despite having all of the elements in their favour.
After the break, Huntingdon very quickly demonstrated how to play the conditions with some towering kicks downfield into the corners.
Although Spalding’s lineout was working relatively well, poor handling or lost possession at the breakdown allowed the home team’s back row in particular to punch decisive holes in the visitors’ defence – and tries started to be conceded.
Worse was to follow for Spalding, as Tim Waltham sustained a nasty ankle injury, with Brian Browne slotting in at lock and Will Shields coming back on the field.
With a substantial cushion and with most of the second half being played in Town’s territory, Huntingdon’s fly-half took the opportunity to sell a wonderful dummy pass to sail in under the posts.
With their left winger also going in wide at the final whistle, the home team toasted a comfortable win.
This was perhaps Spalding’s poorest performance of the season as, although they battled away, they never really got into the match or threatened Huntingdon’s try line.
That was in complete contrast to the previous week’s performance when, for 20 minutes, they had dominated Derby.
During the match little was seen of Josh Broome’s ability to kick deep for the corners.
Also missing was Spalding’s successful deployment of the driving maul from the lineout.
Overall, Spalding’s tactics of trying to keep the ball in hand came completely unstuck and it was another day to forget in the most testing of seasons.
Next up for the basement boys is a touugh-looing trip to fifth-placed Ilkeston (2.15pm) – in what will be Town’s third away game on the spin.
Spalding RFC: Cooke, (captain), B Williams, Hutson, Piccaver, Waltham, Sharman, Richardson, H Brown, Shields, Broome, Browne, S Williams, G Brown, Lane, Booth, Caley, Read and Beschizza.
MOTM: Sharman.
