It’s demolition derby for Town in 20th loss of season

Spalding RFC 7
Mkt Rasen & Louth 45

Struggling Spalding RFC reached another unwanted landmark on Saturday as they were handed a 45-7 derby defeat by Market Rasen and Louth.

The crushing loss means that Town have now lost all 20 of their Midlands One East matches and remain 15 points adrift at the foot with six games to play.

Josh Broome did score in impressive individual try from Ben Williams’ side, but it now looks that only a minor miracle will see them avoid the drop this season.

The start of the match was delayed for five minutes as a fierce hailstorm blew over the Tyrrell’s Yard ground, which was action as home for Town due to waterlogged pitches at the Memorial Field.

A few changes were made to the line-up after a disappointing defeat to Mansfield last time out. In the forwards, there was a start for Josh Caley in the front row, while Liam Richardson returned at openside flanker.

There was a new youthful partnership at half backs, where Joe Grundy – having recently returned to the club and playing well for the second team last week – started at fly-half alongside Will Shields at scrum-half.

Richard Cooke also made the the starting line-up on the right wing, while promising young gun George Douglas also made the squad.

However, the game couldn’t really have started much worse for Town as Rasen executed a well-taken pick and drive to open the scoring for a converted try.

As the conversion was being taken, captain Ryan Chappell gathered in his players for a quick pep talk.

Spalding’s defence looked sharper as a result, with the forwards – Richardson in particular – getting their tackles in well and the three quarters cutting down space for the runners to operate in.

Grundy, who had gone over on his ankle during the warm up before the match, was disappointingly forced off – resulting in a reshuffle with Chappell going to fly-half, Sion Williams to inside centre, Harry Lane to outside centre and Douglas moving onto the left wing.

Although the visitors were now dominating territory and camped on Spalding’s 22, passing the ball along the line, there was a moment of magic as Josh Broome in the defence anticipated the next pass and intercepted the ball, before running the full length of the pitch to score under the post. He then successfully converted his own try to bring the score level at 7-7.

Rasen hit back ten minutes later, firstly with quick hands by the three-quarters which created space for their full-back to slice through for a converted try.

This was followed by their fly-half chipping through for the outside centre to run past the Spalding defence. Before they could turn, he was over for a further converted try to give the away side a 21-7 half-time advantage.

Again, Rasen started the second half much the brighter and, with their forwards becoming more dominant – especially in the scrums – space was starting to open up out wide and in the outside centre. With no defensive cover to beat, Rasen soon scored another unconverted try.

For the next 20 minutes, Spalding battled hard – making use of their forwards, who were gaining territory through Tom Duerden, Ash Piccaver, Mark Haighton and Harry Brown.

But the visitors held firm and their scrum-half supported a break down the left wing to break the stalemate.

As a result of all the defensive tackling, Town started to tire and began making some elementary errors around the breakdown area. A frustrated Brown was shown a yellow card, and with only eight minutes remaining and a one-man advantage the visitors’ three-quarters ran in a further two tries for 45-7.

Although Spalding’s general defensive tackling during the match was pretty good, Rasen’s stronger pack created openings for their backs to take advantage.

For a display of non-stop running and tackling, Richardson was named Town’s man-of-the-match.

Town: Waudby, Read, Caley, Haighton, Piccaver, Duerden, Richardson, Brown, Shields, Grundy, Lane, Chappell (captain), Williams, R Cooke, Broome, S Cooke, Scotney, Douglas.