Kesteven 10 Spalding 12

Town opened their season with a sensational last minute win over Kesteven in their away Lincolnshire Cup match. Trailing by 5 points and into the last play of the match Spalding had Kesteven under pressure when Ash Piccaver broke through the cover defence on the 5 metre line and crossed the try line running behind the posts to present James West with his first successful kick of the afternoon to snatch victory out of defeat.
With preseason training concentrated on fitness under the direction of Scott Miller from Heroes Gym and with the coaching team of Ben Williams, Deborah Phillips and Jim Williams developing the player’s individual skills and tactics everybody was looking forward to this local derby. Sam Cooke as captain led the players onto the field together with the newly appointed vice captain Adam McHugh
Playing against the wind an early pattern of play was established with the Spalding forwards driving forward to be meet by a competitive set of Kesteven forwards, who also had the edge in experience. As a result the home team had several penalties awarded to them at the breakdown and with good lineout ball being won Spalding’s defence was soon being tested. Harry Brown in one of his trademark runs broke from the 5 metre line to be stopped on the half way line. Also the experienced Mark Haighton was starting to command the lineouts securing good valuable ball
Will Shields at scrumhalf was having a difficult time with little guard defence protection from his forwards at the breakdown and with a shoulder injury sustained on the half an hour he was replaced by the experienced Rob Lucas with Ryan Chappell coming off the subs bench to play centre with Ben Hoyles dropping to fullback.
The Spalding scrum was starting to creak and with a scrum awarded to Kesteven on Spalding’s five metre line their blindside flanker pounced on a loose ball to score the opening unconverted try.
At half time prop Josh Caley was replaced by John Barrett and flanker Jordan Templar was replaced by Brian Browne. However it was the home team who started the better and with a lineout awarded to them on the 22 metre line after 7 minutes of the restart their prop burst through with the ball and poor cover tackling allowed a further unconverted try for a 10 point to nil lead to the home team.
As the second half developed James West, fly half, was starting to find his kicks to touch having been absent for a year and the link with Adam McHugh at inside centre was also starting to work. But as Spalding started to exert pressure a dump tackle by flanker Jay Harwood saw him awarded a yellow card and a couple of minutes later he was joined by Ryan Chappell for a high tackle. Brian Browne sustained a head injury with Jordan Templar back on and George Douglas replaced Charlie Seconde on the left wing.
For the next eight minutes Spalding hung on with just 13 players on the field. Although under pressure the scrum just about held and the three quarters pressed and tackled, depriving the home team of any points. With Spalding back up to strength it was the turn of Kesteven to lose a forward for interference at the ruck.
Within a minute Spalding turned defence into attack and great hands saw Jay Harwood bursting down the left wing. As the cover defence came in a great inside pass saw Ryan Chappell crash over with less than 3 minutes left to play for an unconverted try.
Spalding failed to take advantage of a penalty kick for touch, going dead, but a poor restart kick by Kesteven handed possession back to Spalding who went through several phases of play as they probed for a last ditch opening. Ash Piccaver using his strength and speed found a weakness and burst through the Kesteven cover defence to touch down for the winning converted try as the referee blew the final whistle.
Head Coach Ben Williams was pleased to get this first win at the very start of the season saying “ it will give this young team early season confidence together with some good positives coming out of the match but with areas still to work on back at training. The lads fitness was impressive and a big thanks goes to Heroes Gym for this positive”

Spalding RFC Team – Josh Caley, Sam Cooke (Captain), Jacob Hutson, Ash Piccaver, Mark Heighton, Jordan Templar, Jay Harwood, Harry Brown, Will Shields, James West, Chris Douglas, Adam McHugh (Vice Captain), Ben Hoyles, Charlie Seconde, Rob Lucas,
Bench - John Barrett, Brian Browne, Ryan Chappell, George Douglas

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