SPALDING RFC 43
BELPER RFC 12
Gavin Sharman ran in a record-breaking hat-trick as Spalding RFC secured their Midlands Three East (North) status with a big 43-12 victory over Belper on Saturday.
It was Town’s best home performance of the season and means that they’ll finish at least ninth in the table after the league’s fixtures are completed this weekend.
Spalding started the day knowing that only a win would guarantee them safety – but after just two minutes they were in for an early shock as Belper kicked a penalty to touch only five metres from the try line.
As the lineout formed, a cheeky throw to the front caught the hosts napping and in a flash the visitors had a five point advantage.
Shaken but not stirred, the Elephants were soon on the front foot, pressing deep inside Belper territory.
Richard Cooke, playing scrum half, passed to fly-half Dan Adams from the base of a ruck. Spotting an opening, Adams cut a line through the oncoming defence, held off a couple of tackles and stretched successfully for the try line, converted by Willis Ingleby.
With that, the momentum had immediately shifted back in Spalding’s favour.
Both sets of forwards were battling hard, but the cutting edge on the day was in Spalding’s backs, especially the two wingers, Sharman and Ashton Capes.
With the ball having been won by Jacob Greaves at the breakdown, Cooke broke on the blind side and offloaded to centre George Brown.
A pass out to Sharman saw him race down the wing and outpace the Belper defence for an unconverted try in the corner.
George Berry replaced Kev Hudson in the forwards and soon after the ball was moved swiftly out to Capes on the right wing.
With little room to play with, he managed to stay inside the touchline and then cut back inside for an unconverted try and a 12-point lead after 33 minutes.
Then, with half time approaching, Jason Steels lit up the afternoon. From the half way line he used his speed to initially slice through Belper’s guard defence.
A change in direction saw Steels charge through one tackle, and then another and – with the try line approaching – the last defender was never going to execute a successful tackle and he touched down a try under the posts, successfully converted.
That meant that, by half time, a bonus point for four tries had been secured.
The second half started with Spalding again being caught sleeping, as they appeared to have lost concentration and the level of intensity required.
Within a couple of minutes Belper had a converted try to reduce the deficit.
Slowly, Town played themselves back into the game with Harry Cole counter rucking well and Harry Brown – back in the team after a ten-week lay-off, making some huge breaks down the middle of the park.
Also back after a lay-off for concussion was Fin Peters at full-back. He dealt extremely well with any high kicks from Belper and counter-attacked at pace.
But it was Sharman who capitalised as the game opened up with his pace outstripping the visitors’ wide defence for his second try.
Coach George Reid now started to ring further changes with Liam Adams coming on for Cole and Captain Cooke off with Ben Shields taking over at scrum half and John Barrett replaced by Hudson
In this match, Sharman had already passed Richard Cooke’s record number of tries in a season (in recent times) and he went two better with a burst down the wing and a run under the posts for his hat-trick, converted by Ingleby.
But it was another stunning try from the forwards that closed the match and the season for Spalding.
Ash Piccaver was stationed away from the breakdown as the ball was pinned out to him by Shields and Adams.
Using his athletic build to its advantage, Piccaver burst through a couple of desperate tackles by Belper and ran clear of the defence from 30 metres to score, with Ingleby again converting.
Spalding played some brilliant rugby in what was a great team effort ensuring that, for the first time in three years, there will be no relegation to a lower league and survival was finally secured.
Spalding RFC: Pete Smith, John Barrett, Jacob Greaves, Kev Hudson, Ash Piccaver, Harry Cole, Jason Steels, Harry Brown, Richard Cooke, Dan Adams, Gav Sharman, George Brown, Willis Ingleby, Ashton Capes and Fin Peters. Subs: Liam Adams, Ben Shields, George Berry.
