Buxton Adapt Better to Playing Conditions to get a Bonus Win

Having travelled for nearly three hours by coach with Manchester not too far away, according to the road signs, Spalding disembarked at Buxton’s old rugby ground for this rescheduled game. Earlier in the season Spalding had trounced Buxton at home, but since then Buxton had won all their home games and picked up points away from home, lying just behind Spalding in the league.

Taking to the field Spalding had the advantage of a strong wind blowing lengthways down the pitch and that old saying “a game of two halves” was very apt.

However Buxton soon showed that they were familiar with such conditions as they used their forwards to pick and drive forward or short pop passes to their inside centre to burst through initial tackles down the middle. At the breakdown they were first to the ruck to protect the ball, before recycling and for the first 20 minutes Spalding failed out of their own half .

Finally, with the aid of downfield kicks, Spalding threatened, but Buxton’s strong forwards held firm. However, the first indiscipline by the home team, saw a punch being landed on Will Shields as he legally disrupted a ruck. The referee instantly red carded Buxton’s scrum half and mysteriously yellow carded Shields.

Spalding failed to drive home their advantage from 10 metres out and Buxton’s forwards immediately worked their way back up field with simple rugby retaining the ball in tricky wind conditions.

Finally after a succession of rucks on Spalding’s try line, pressure told, and Buxton had their opening try. Spalding, at last, sprung a surprise with a good tackle on a Buxton forward, with the ball going lose. Scrum half Ben Shields picked up and ran clear down the wing, converted by Willis Ingleby.

From the restart Spalding failed to clear the ball downfield and again Buxton’s forwards dominated the breakdown, with their simple game plan and pressure finally brought its reward with their second try. Having failed to pin Buxton down in the own half with the benefit of the strong wind Spalding turning around at half time with a three point deficit with the prospect of facing an uphill battle into the strong wind
It was no surprise that within minutes of the restart the home team were forcing the pace with their strong carries and ability to protect the ball as they recycled for the next phase. Spalding we forced into making tackles after tackles, as they steadily retreated. From a scrum on the five metre line they forced their way over near the posts and with the conversion, the lead starting to stretch out.

Again , Buxton forwards reverted using underhand tactics at the breakdown. Finally the referee became aware and further Buxton player was red carded, whilst Luke Turner was also shown a red for retaliation. Passing and handling in the windy conditions was difficult throughout the game and a Spalding lost ball resulted in Buxton scoring their fourth try.

Again unacceptable behaviour by a Buxton player, saw him yellow carded, by the laws of the game it should have been an automatic red, with a two man advantage with nearly 10 minutes remain Spalding had a chance to retrieve the day and Ed Booth on the right wing cut back inside top score.

Unfortunately poor judgement and passing by Spalding’s fly half saw to many passes not going to hand and opportunities were wasted and finally one of Buxton’s stand out forwards, Number eight, saw him run half the field breaking a number of tackles to score the final try as the final whistle was blown.

During this game Spalding’s ability to fully understand and adapt their style of play to the conditions was the key difference between the teams resulting in another defeat on the road.

Team Kev Hudson, John Barrett, Luke Turner, Mark Haighton, Jordan Templar, Harry Cole, Will Shields, Ash Ankar, Ben Shields, Willis Ingleby, Gav Sharman, Dan Adams, Tom Wilson, Ed Booth, Connal Mason, Sub Richard Cooke

Report by Peter Jullien