Newark RFC 82
Spalding RFC 12
Any lingering hopes Spalding RFC had of staging a great escape in Midlands One East now look doomed after relegation rivals Newark handed them an 82-12 thrashing on Saturday.
Spalding knew they had to get something from this derby of sorts, a match they went into having lost all 20 of their league games so far this term.
Despite an enthralling first half that had Spalding adrift by 36 points to 12, Newark ran riot in the second half – mainly through their outstanding wingers – to leave Ben Williams’ side some 28 points from safety with five games to play. That leaves them requiring unlikely bonus point victories and needing all of their relegation rivals to lose handsomely each week.
The early exchanges on Saturday were fairly even, but Newark won a couple of Spalding’s lineouts with their tall first jumper securing the ball after the away side had gained some good territory, with the hosts giving away early penalties.
In the 11th minute Newark’s Ben Usher showed what he was about with his pace down the left wing for the opening try.
A few minutes later, Newark executed a perfectly worked try. They won a lineout on the right hand side and the ball was quickly passed through the threequarters hands to give Usher room to run in once more.
A good contest was developing in the forwards, with Spalding’s two lock, Tom Duerden and Ash Piccaver, in particular gaining territory with some forceful drives down the middle. This set up some promising breakdown positions near the Newark try line, but they scrambled the ball away for a lineout.
However, a well-planned catch and drive saw the Spalding forwards destroy the home defence and Harry Brown was over the try line to open their account.
With Newark realising that Usher had the beating of Spalding’s defence out wide, they began creating space for him to beat the visitors defence.
This was followed by a poor clearance kick by Spalding, which was gathered in by Usher – who ran 40 metres in at the corner.
Not done there, a further try followed by the Newark right winger – who was recently picked for the England under-18 squad.
From the restart kick by Josh Broome, Ash Piccaver was able to gather in down the left hand side and, with a hand off and strong running, Spalding scored their second try, which was well converted by Broome.
With a 24-point cushion at half time, Newark had the game wrapped up within the first ten minutes of the restart with another try by Usher – even though they were down to 14 players with one of their forwards yellow carded for a high tackle.
Injuries then started to stack up for Spalding. Already in the first half Luke Scotney had been replaced in the scrum as a result of a dead leg, with Brian Browne slotting in and Chris Eggleton coming off the bench.
The experienced Duerden and Sion Williams sustained shoulder and ankle injuries respectively, with replacements Jake Read and George Douglas coming off the bench.
That allowed Newark to go points crazy with a succession of well-taken tries.
Although Spalding battled gamely to stem the flow, the home team were easily worthy winners.
The outstanding Usher collected six tries in total – and just about put the final nail in Spalding’s coffin to boot.
Spalding RFC: Waudby, Cooke, Caley, Deurden, Piccaver, Scotney, Richardson, H Brown, Cooke, Chappell, Shields, S Williams, Gosling, Browne, Broome, Read, Douglas and Eggleton.
