A man-of-the-match display from George Douglas couldn’t stop Spalding RFC’s Nomads from slipping to 25-5 defeat against Eagles Pennant League leaders Bletchley 2nd on Saturday.
With Spalding’s first team afforded a rare weekend off, all eyes were on Town’s second string at the Memorial Field.
For the first 20 minutes both defences were on top, but Bletchley steadily began to put pressure on the Spalding line. Only a good clearance kick from Joe Grundy, who was making his first start of the season, saw the hosts survive this opening period.
Bletchley’s backs were playing with confidence – and when Spalding were penalised at a ruck for not rolling away, a penalty kick went wide of the posts.
Spalding’s forwards then stormed upfield with five phases of play, before the ball was released to the backs. But poor handling let a potential scoring opportunity slip.
The visitors’ pressure was only stemmed when full back Douglas produced a towering clearance kick.
However, Bletchley immediately responded with further attacking play and found a hole in the middle of Town’s defence to run through to score under the posts for a converted try.
With Joe Grundy then given a yellow card for not releasing, the away side produced a blind side move from a scrum which left a two-on-one – and although Pete Smith got his tackle in, the try was scored for a half-time lead of 12-0.
Captain Richard Cooke made changes to personnel during the interval, but the pattern of the match did not change with Bletchley having more of the play and Town’s tackle count rising.
Spalding were penalised for coming in the side of a ruck for a successful penalty kick to Bletchley – and five minutes later a further lack of discipline with a high tackle let the visitors set up an attacking scrum on the five metre line, which was successfully driven over.
Bletchley’s forwards were not finished and a few minutes later a loose ball just a couple of metres out presented them with a simple try.
However, Spalding finally got on the scoreboard in the dying seconds following a counter-attack down the left wing. Grundy and George Douglas exchanged passes before the latter crashed over for an unconverted try.
Despite the scoreline, this was a good, competitive match for Spalding, with several outstanding individual performances. Lock Ash Piccaver was a tower of strength both in the scrum and lineout, while Grundy demonstrated his potential at fly half, flanker Kieran Bailey had a very tidy match and Douglas delivered a top attacking display.
Nomads: Barrett, Read, Smith, Piccaver, K Hudson, Bailey, Scotney, Davis, Cooke (captain), Grundy, Sayer, Adams, Browne, Sharman, Douglas, Calaby, Moore, J Hutson, Gosling and Eglestone.
