St Neots 22
Spalding 24
Spalding came from behind late in the second half to beat St Neots away in the Counties 2 Midlands East (South) league on Saturday.
After a bright opening, Spalding hung on to a two point advantage with determined defence for the last ten minutes after Sam Noble’s yellow carded meant they ended with 14 men on the pitch.
Throughout the game St Neots were prepared to run the ball at Spalding orchestrated by their fly half, who was allowed too much freedom and was rarely closed down.
The opening minutes saw Spalding taking the game to St Neots, pressurising them in their own half.
With a secure scrum on their 22 metres, the scrum half whipped the ball away to fly half Conall Mason and a good pass wide to outside centre Gav Sharman saw him slice through the home team’s stretched defence to open the scoring and with a simple conversion, an early lead was established after nine minutes of play.
However a continual flaw in Spalding’s play is the number of penalties conceded leading to a sprinkling of yellow cards.
Running back to cover, Jack Patrick tackled over the shoulder and was duly penalised, which allowed St Neots fly half to kick to touch.
They won the five-metre line out, and drove for the try line.
A good conversion brought the home team back on level terms.
Although a man down, Spalding were playing with confidence.
A clearance kick by St Neots was caught by Mason and the ball was moved along the backs with full back Callum Lewis joining to burst through the visitors’ defence to score.
St Neots backs were pressing up in defence and seeing space behind, Mason kicked cross field looking for Lewis on the wing.
However St Neots plucked the ball out of the air and ran in unopposed for the home team to steal a two-point lead at the half time whistle blown two minutes later.
The second half saw Spalding on the attack early but a knock-on resulted in a scrum to the home team on their 22-metre line.
St Neots attacked down the left side and their winger ran in a good try out wide for a seven-point lead.
Alan Charevicius came off the bench into the pack replacing Jacob Gedney.
Spalding were now having to battle hard to get back into the match.
Flanker Ed Williams was showing his skills at the breakdown winning turnovers and penalties.
Spalding’s scrum was on top and Noble, with a pick up, broke and supported by Jordan Templer, territory was gained.
Hooker Miguel Da Silva continued, twisted and turned out of a couple of tackles and with a turn of pace was over the try line.
A further penalty conceded saw St Neots restore a five-point lead, but within a couple of minutes Spalding snatched the lead back.
A dominant scrum on the half way line saw Noble pick up from the base, gain distance and a pass to Lewis saw him finish well.
With a good conversion from wide by Mason, Spalding had a two-point lead with 20 minutes remaining.
With a slope and wind advantage, St Neots came looking for a winning score and this is when Spalding’s defence had to battle away.
Andy Fuller replaced Tom Parker in the front row and with a couple of big carries by Ash Ankar, Spalding seemed to be weathering the storm.
St Neots’ fly half was still buzzing around and a tackle by Noble as the fly half dipped and turned, was deemed high by the referee and the yellow card shown.
Spalding now had ten minutes to survive with a man down. Play was condensed within Spalding’s 22 as St Neots’ forwards strived to get over the try line.
Thankfully the referee was brave enough to penalise the home team for sealing off at the ruck or for not releasing with Williams again winning turnover ball.
Finally full time was blown by the referee for Spalding to escape with a bonus point away win to keep intact their undefeated run which now extends to nine matches.
Spalding remain in second place in the league behind Daventry who are on a similar undefeated run.
Town: Tom Parker, Ash Ankar, Miguel Da Silva, Jordan Templer, Ash Piccaver, Ed Williams, Jacob Gedney, Sam Noble, Ben Shields, Conall Mason, Harry Hudson, Jack Patrick, Gav Sharman, Ben Shields, Callum Lewis.
Subs: Alan Charevicius, Andy Fuller.
