Spalding Firsts 31 Mellish Firsts 12
There was a big welcome to Mellish Rugby Club, who brought over two teams for league games on Saturday.
Mellish’s Firsts were lying bottom in Counties 1 Midlands East (North) with Spalding lying sixth, whilst Spalding’s 1923s play in Counties 4 Midlands East (North East).
Spalding Firsts took to the field with the team who battled so hard last week against Rasen, but with Sam Booth returning at inside centre and Tom Parker in at lock with both locks Douglas and Moxon injured.
For a team lying bottom of the league Mellish dominated the opening ten minutes, forcing Spalding to defend their try line following penetrating runs by the visitor centres.
Capitalising on a backs move they created space for their right winger to go over the try line for an unconverted try.
Spalding were being punished in the scrums, with Mellish on top, driving hard, and the coaches reacted, bringing Miguel Da’Silva off the bench for Parker.
A big plus for Spalding was that the lineouts were functioning well with Ash Anker delivering good balls and Henry Hobson jumping at the front of the lineout regularly securing possession, whilst Ryan Firth jumping towards the rear was also flying high into the sky to feed scrum half Jim Wraith.
Steadily Spalding were making breaks with centres Booth and Ollie Machin gaining valuable territory, whilst back row Harry Ole was starting to make an impact.
With a ruck secured ten metres out from the posts, Wraith spotted a lack of any guard defence and slipped through a gap to score by the posts and with a simple conversion by Ingleby Spalding had a two-point advantage on the half-hour.
Spalding squandered several opportunities but with seconds left of the first half it was outside centre Machin who lit up the afternoon with a penetrating run, breaking tackles and speed over the try line and with a simple conversion by Ingleby Spalding went in at half time with a 14-5 lead.
The start of the second half saw the referee crack down on some back chat by Mellish giving Ingleby a penalty kick sailing just wide of the posts.
Mellish also squandered a penalty kick opportunity.
With play going nowhere early in the second half changes were made off the bench with Parker back on for Broome in the front row and Finlay Roy on for Anker with Elliot Humpheys switching to hooker from flank.
The latter part of the second half belonged to fullback Charlie Beecham.
The Spalding scrum was coming under increasing pressure.
Mellish, with possession inside Spalding territory, were passing the ball along the backs but Beecham up in the defensive line intercepted and outpaced everybody from 80 yards to score far right followed by an excellent conversion kick by Ingleby to extend the lead to 24-5.
Mellish upped their game to score to the right of the posts and with the conversion to trailed by 12 points
Further pressure was built on Spalding’s scrum with back row Ole going off injured replaced by Alex Newberry and Ollie Sorrell replacing Gav Sharman on the wing.
Scrum pressure caused Spalding’s front row to collapse and Anker was yellow carded with four minutes remaining. Another scrum collapse followed and Newberry was also yellow carded. Spalding were down to 13 players for final two minute.
From scrum possession Mellish moved the ball along the backs, but Beecham again came to the rescue with another interception and ran nearly the length of the pitch to score another outstanding solo try.
With the conversion sailing between the posts, the referee blew for full time and Spalding had secured a 31-12 bonus point win leaving them sixth in the league.
Team: Connor Broome, Ash Anker, Alex Newberry, Tom Parker, Henry Hobson, Ryan Firth, Elliott Humphreys, Harry Ole, Jim Wraith, Willis Ingleby, Ben Shields, Sam Booth, Ollie Machin, Gav Sharman, Charlie Beecham, Subs Miguel Da’Silva, Finlay Roy, Ollie Sorrell.
Spalding 1923s 107
Mellish 0
Meanwhile the 1923s were enjoying a feast of tries on an adjoining pitch.
With Mellish seconds fielding a team of only 11 players, Spalding reduced their numbers aiming for a fair and equally balanced league game.
However the 1923s blew Mellish away with their pace and teamwork, scoring over a century of points.
An outstanding performance leaving Spalding fourth in the league just one point behind two teams above them, with Lincoln 2s undefeated as leaders.
Team: Stevenson, Brundle, Allen, Constable, Medlock, Pite, Floyd, Sharman, Lucas, Hudson, foster, Brown, Hall, Parker-McGee, Williamson, Batterbee, Wilson, Moore, Davis, Crane.
