Daventry 20 Spalding 12
Poor decision making and execution saw Spalding slip to defeat against the ‘invincible’ early-season Counties One Midlands East (South) leaders.
Daventry had won their previous four league games and went undefeated throughout all last season.
However, Spalding looked well equipped to lower their colours going into the final stages of a keenly contested encounter.
The hosts had lost a player to a red card just before half-time, following a dangerous high tackle on centre Taylor Crowson. After lengthy treatment from physio Mark Johnson, he returned to the game.
With Daventry just six points in the lead, Spalding were spreading the ball along the back line, probing for a break in their defence.
George Douglas crashed into the home defence, looking to set up a ruck but the support play was slow to the breakdown and Daventry turned the ball over.
The home prop charged forward, evading three poor Spalding tackles, offloaded to support players and Daventry had their second converted try of the afternoon, having started the counter attack from inside their own 22, to open a 13-point lead when it could so easily have been Spalding who had gone a point clear.
Spalding responded through their forwards with young Jack Grundy standing out with his determination. He always gained yardage and broke tackles, alongside Miguel Da Silva, who could also be counted on to take the ball forward.
Spalding encamped deep inside Daventry territory, retaining possession as the forwards drove forward. The home team offended at a ruck, drawing a yellow card to put them down to 13 players.
The game was there for the taking and, with a clear advantage Spalding went searching for the breakthrough. However, Daventry were well organised and covered every move. They challenged at every ruck, drawing another yellow card, which gave Spalding a three-man advantage. They were in front of the posts with an uncontested scrum when a further offence resulted in another yellow card to leave just 11 Daventry players on the field for the remaining five minutes.
Spalding needed a converted try to secure a losing bonus point. With hardly any home defence left standing, instead of looking to score near the posts for any easy conversion, Spalding spread the ball wide and Gav Sharman touched down in the corner, leaving Conall Mason a near impossible conversion into the wind.
Daventry had established a first-half lead of seven points with a penalty kick to the five-metre line followed by a well executed line-out move, and a successful penalty kick.
In response, Mason’s penalty kick rebounded off a post back into play. Spalding forwards gathered the ball, drove forward and Will Shields emerged from under the pack of forwards for a successfully converted try.
However, later poor decision making proved the reason why Spalding failed to break the league leaders’ undefeated record and close the gap on them.
Spalding: Cowell, Parker, Turner, Da Silva, Douglas, Williams, Shields, Grundy, Sutcliffe, Ingleby, Sharman, Mason, Crowson, Firth, Patrick. Subs: Callaby, Crane, Brown.
