Loughborough 57
Spalding RFC 6
Time is beginning to run out for Spalding RFC to mount any kind of attempt to avoid relegation from Midlands Two East (North) this season.
Town slumped to another heavy defeat on Saturday, going down 57-6 at mid-table Loughborough to make it 12 defeats from 13 games.
The Elephants are now staring down the barrel at relegation to a level of rugby that they haven’t sampled in their recent history, with safety some 15 points away with just nine games left to play this season.
When these two teams met early in the season at the Memorial Ground, Spalding narrowly lost to Loughborough in the last ten minutes, resulting in the visitors going top of the league and triggering the start of Spalding’s struggles.
Four months on, the gap between the sides has certainly grown.
The Town team welcomed back Jacob Hutson to the front row after a long absence through injury and Adam McHugh also returned to full-back.
That saw George Douglas move to the wing, but the team had a settled look so there were expectations of a good performance.
With the disadvantage of a sloping pitch, Spalding received the kick off – and within the first five minutes the home team soon announced their intentions with an early converted try.
Moments later, however, an infringement by Loughborough allowed James West to kick a good penalty to make it 7-3.
A similar pattern of play was repeated ten minutes later with the home team running in a converted try and West responding with a penalty kick.
However, the traffic was mainly one-way with the Loughborough pack on top.
Although Spalding had their best lineout jumpers on show – namely Mark Haighton, Ash Piccaver and Tom Duerden – the home team were also dominant in that phase of play.
From then on Loughborough opened up, spreading the ball around and looked for defensive gaps. And, with good support play and missed tackles by Spalding coupled with a lack of intensity from the visitors, the home team took advantage to run in three tries. At half-time the scoreline looked grim for The Elephants at 36-6 down.
Spalding re-grouped during the break and, to their credit, took the game to Loughborough. Helped by West’s penalty kicks to touch and a period of 20 minutes of highly competitive rugby with
Spalding having the better of the territory advantage with them closing down space in defence.
Chris Douglas replaced his brother on the wing and brought some aggression, gaining good yardage.
McHugh also had a couple of typical runs from full-back, bursting through tackles, and Duerden and Piccaver were proving to be a handful with their carries and driving runs.
However, Spalding never really threatened Loughborough’s try line during their spell on top.
On the rare occasions the ball was spread along the three-quarters space was found and a threat was posed.
The last quarter of the match again saw some poor defensive alignments and missed tackles by Spalding and three further tries were conceded before the referee called time and a relatively easy win for Loughborough.
This Saturday’s home date with fellow strugglers Market Bosworth (2.30pm) is now a must-win clash.
Spalding RFC: John Barrett, Josh Caley, Jacob Hutson, Mark Haighton, Ash Piccaver, Tom Duerden, Richard Cooke, Harry Brown (captain), Will Shields , James West, George Douglas, Harry Winch, George Brown, Gav Sharman, Adam McHugh. Subs: Chris Douglas and Sam Cowell.
