Spartans fall short in Home Opener

Still with a number of players unavailable across the club due to injuries and the usual seasonal absence selection was difficult although it may not have looked like it based on the quality of the match day squad.

Chris O’Donovan, Sam Burke and John Lewis made up the front row with Tim ‘Tango’ Barthram and Harry Owen in the second. Chris Bench moved to number 8 with Will ‘The Colonel’ Sanders returning from his first team debut at 7 and Matthieau Gassey at 6.

The Back Line was less familiar, Vice Captain Andy Harrison retained his place at Scrum Half with Richard Gill coming in at fly half for his first game in over 12 months. Luke Spears and Tom Wayne started in the midfield with a back three of Matt Preece, Brett Garbett and Skipper Ben Dockery.

The subs bench comprised of Dale Jones, Joe Madden, Jamie Humpage and Zac Tapper.

The first half was frantic as Spartans kicked off facing the less favoured downhill slope looking to make an early mark on the game. The powerful forward pack clearly had the upper hand in the opening exchanges as they rumbled down field with a series of mauls. Within five minutes of kicking off Syston had conceded a number of penalties at the breakdown and Spartans found themselves in a promising position within the 22.

Skipper Dockery put faith in his pack as he called for the scrum, the forward 8 marched forward and looked certain to drive over for a try when the defending flanker appeared from nowhere and dived on the ball at Bench’s feet in an act of questionable legality. With the side line expecting the referee to blow for the penalty try Syston reacted quicker and cleared their lines much to the disbelief of the home crowd.

The pack in black were not deterred though as the once again rumbled forward from the resulting lineout, making great progress into the opposition red zone. Again though it was not to be as a 2 man overlap was missed as the ball was spilt over the line, again allowing Syston to clear.

The opening quarter had been promising for the home side if not fruitful. A number of chances went begging as they piled on the pressure and Spartans will feel disappointed not to have chalked up a single point in the opening quarter.

Syston, buoyed by their resolution in defence, jumped on the opportunity to come back at Spartans with some rugby of their own, demonstrating their own strength and pace out wide. The right winger in particular was used to good effect as he stretched his legs, twice only missing out because of the last ditch tackling of Garbett and Tapper who had joined the action for the bloody nosed Dockery. The back three were working very well in both defence and counter attack and, had they seen possession in more advanced areas of the pitch, could well have made the difference in the first half.

It was a thrilling second quarter as Spartans, not quite clicking, looked to assert dominance in the tight whereas Syston aimed to release their pacey back line in the wider channels and amazingly, the half drew to a close without a single point being scored.

The huge physicality of the contest was taking its toll on both sides as Burke, Gassey and Dockery all left the field carrying knocks and those still in the game obviously blowing out some cobwebs still. Humpage came on as a makeshift back row player, Jones came into hooker and Tapper came back on the wing.

The start to the second half was a familiar story to Spartans, tries being score early on down the Coppice Lane slope, the problem being that it was the away side that had the gravitational advantage in the second half.

Short on numbers and with their tighthead prop being injured Syston were forced to revert to a passive scrum which took away Spartan’s main advantage in the game. This allowed their forward pack to focus energy on the loose and, for the first time in the game, gave the visitors a solid platform to feed their backline.

This was apparent almost immediately as they scored a brace within a matter of minutes. The first coming from a smart line by the outside centre who cut through unopposed to touch down under the posts, the second from a rolling lineout drive. After such a tight first half Spartans were now staring up the hill at a 14 point deficit.

Although the flow was somewhat stemmed Syston went over for a third score on the 20 minute mark to push the lead out to 19 points to nil, frustratingly for Spartans as they continued to cough us possession all to easily.

The bench was emptied at the point as Madden came in at fly half following a short spell out with a rib injury.

With Gill moving to inside centre Spartans seemed to find a bit of momentum again, Bench, Sanders, Lewis and Jones were working hard to make ground whilst the backs had started to string some play together.

A penalty in midfield saw Madden tap quickly and hit Jones on a sublime line. He charged into the 22 before being held short, his supporting forwards looked to have driven over only to be held up desperately short.

The resulting scrum was a solid one as Madden and Harrison re-ignited last season’s half back partnership to switch the play wide and find Gill who expertly drew the last defender hit Matt Preece whose finish was top class to round off an impressive home debut for the newcomer.

Unfortunately this would be the only score for Spartans, although the momentum has swung back in their favour the mistakes were still plentiful and field position was gifted back to Syston a number of times. The visitors eventually capitalised from a close range line out, the 13 once again cutting a good line and bursting through to round off a 26 point haul for Syston.

A late surge from Spartans saw Preece, Tapper, Wayne and Garbett all make blistering line breaks and good yards up the hill but as had been the story of much of the game Spartans as a whole lacked the clinical edge to convert the chances into points and as the referee blew an end to the game.

Spartans will come away from this fixture a little disappointed with the rued chances however many positives will still be taken from what is only the second fixture of the campaign against very good quality opposition. With several players still to come back from injury and holiday the Twos will look to improve in their final warm up game at Silhillians this Saturday.

Final Score
Spartans 2nd XV 5 – 26 Syston 3rd XV

Trys
Matt Preece