The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Spalding RFC 25
Stamford 15
Spalding RFC turned the Midlands Two East (North) table upside down on Saturday with a stunning success over league leaders and chief rivals Stamford.
Stamford came to the Memorial Field with eight wins and one narrow loss, compared to Town’s one narrow win and eight defeats – which placed them bottom.
But on a day with a strong wind blowing down the pitch, Spalding produced a superb display of teamwork, commitment, discipline and tactical awareness against the best team they had played this season to come away with a superb win.
Having recovered from a hamstring injury suffered at the start of the season, there was a welcome return for James West at fly-half, while Rob Lucas came in at scrum half for the suspended Will Shields.
Lock Mikey Watts also came back from injury and, with a solid looking bench of Pete Waudby, Mark Haighton and Adam McHugh, new coach Bruno Figueirido led the pre-match warm-up in front of an expectant crowd boosted by the confident Stamford supporters.
The match was only two minutes old when Stamford infringed at a breakdown on the halfway line. West immediately stepped up for the penalty kick and his wind-assisted effort sailed over for an early 3-0 home lead.
Both teams were immediately demonstrating the commitment and support play required in a derby, but greater discipline was being shown by Spalding.
Indeed, the away side started to suffer as the referee awarded penalties against them for back chat – and two further long range penalty kicks by West increased the home advantage to 9-0.
Stamford responded when a good move saw their left winger to go over in the corner, but soon after their scrum-half was yellow carded.
The Town axis of Lucas and West were intelligently using the wind to kick for territory to keep the pressure on the visitors. Both Jordan Templer and Harry Sharman, at the lineouts, were challenging on the opposition ball and with the wind making life difficult for the throwing in pressure continued to mount on Stamford.
Things took a turn for the worse when Ryan Chappell, playing in the back row, saw yellow for dissent. That saw Spalding’s scrum come under greater pressure, but they rode the storm and three further penalties came their way before half time.
The impressive West kicked all of them to give his side an 18-5 advantage at the break.
It was Spalding’s turn to face the stiff wind after the break – and it was the forwards who led the way time after time, driving the ball forward, setting up a ruck and picking and driving again.
Stamford eventually created an overlap on the right-hand side and they were over for their second try. With the benefit of a successful penalty moments later, Town’s lead had been cut to three points with more than 20 minutes remaining.
Many would have expected the table-toppers to complete the job, but the response from Spalding was simply outstanding.
With great unity and support play by everybody in a Town shirt – and in stark contrast to Stamford – very few kickable penalties were conceded in the contact areas.
The home confidence was growing with Sion Williams, at inside centre, having given an outstanding display of defensive tackling, Spalding were now finding some space for the backs to counter-attack in support of their forwards.
The match was in the balance and Stamford, with just a few minutes to go, pressed down the left wing.
George Douglas, covering back, put in a decisive tackle which released the ball to full-back Josh Broome.
With a burst of pace, he was down the wing and as the cover defence came in, a kick infield saw the ball fumbled by Stamford on their 22 metre line.
Spalding’s flankers were immediately up and tackling to win the ball and the home forwards drove the ball ever closer to the try line.
With space running out, the ball found its way to left winger Kieran Lake to squeeze over the try line inside the corner flag.
West stepped up for a superb conversion into the wind with only one minute left to seal a memorable win.
Spalding’s teamwork and tactical awareness when playing into the wind was outstanding, with the poor tackling and individual errors shown in past weeks nowhere to be seen.
The victory also lifts them off the bottom of the table for the first time in months.
Spalding RFC: Kier Moore, Sam Cooke (captain), Sam Cowell, Jordan Templer, Mikey Watts, Ryan Chappell, Harry Sharman, Harry Brown, Rob Lucas, James West, Kieran Lake, Sion Williams, George Brown, George Douglas, Josh Broome. Subs: Peter Waudby, Mark Haighton and Adam McHugh.
