Spalding RFC 5
Old Northamptonians 43
Spalding RFC’s inevitable relegation from Midlands One East was confirmed on Saturday – but coach Ben Williams was far from disappointed with what he saw at the Memorial Field.
Title chasing Old Northamptonians (ON) emerged 43-5 winners to condemn Town a 22nd loss from as many games and an immediate return back to Midlands Two East (North).
Far from been downbeat head coach Williams – who even enjoyed a 20-minute run out on the field – admits he was proud of his players.
Town lost the reverse fixture 95-0 back in November, making the club’s progress in recent week all the more evident.
“We gave away a few too many easy tries.” lamented Williams. “But they are a very good side.
“We’re pleased to have halved the deficit from the last game and I thought we played some very strong, positive rugby. I’m still proud of the lads and I’m convinced we’ll win one of our remaining four games. We’re improving.
“It was nice of their coach to come over at the end and complement our performance. That meant a lot.”
The omens weren’t good for Spalding from the off as ON quickly exposed the left side of their defence and ran in a try inside the first minute.
Town were then penalised for not releasing at a ruck and the visitors’ dominant pack had the confidence to go for a scrum rather than a penalty kick and slipped the ball to the fly-half, who found a gap in the defence to score under the posts.
Town responded with their forwards gaining territory. With Ed Duerden and Harry Brown repeatedly getting through the first tackle, a penalty given away by ON allowed Ollie Phillips to kick to touch on the five metres for a lineout.
A clear take in the lineout by Tom Duerden set up the driving maul, but it was held up over the line. An interception then allowed the visitors had a breakaway try. A driving maul try soon after that score made it 24-0 at half time.
The hosts were caught sleeping early in the second period as ON added 12 points in the opening three minutes thanks to a pair of tries.
To their credit, Town hit back for their only score when a quick tap and go by Phillips set up the forwards to drive on, resulting in Ash Piccaver touching down for a well-taken unconverted try.
Within two minutes ON’s responded with a line break for a converted try.
But, with Williams on to shore things up for the closing stages, no further scores were added as the away side racked up the infringements.
That was a signal of just how much Town improved late on, but it was too little, too late.
Spalding RFC: Waudby, Cooke, Caley, Piccaver, T Duerden, Richardson, E Duerden, Brown, Shields, Phillips, Lane, Chappell (captain), Gosling, C Douglas, Broome, Seconde, B Williams.
- Town face a tough trip to higher-graded Scunthorpe in the Lincs Cup on Saturday (3pm).
Tom Gosling misses the game with a severed nerve in his hand – and head coach Williams admits it’ll be a tough test. He added: “Obviously it’s going to be a very hard game.
“We’ll go there and give it a go. That’s all I can ask.”
