Enterprising Spa are left empty-handed

Leamington produced a professional response to their thrashing at Dunlop and were unlucky to walk away pointless after an entertaining Midlands Two West (South) encounter.

Droitwich drew first blood in the opening minutes with a penalty but then had to battle to stop the Spa attack from over-running them.

Alex Carroll laid the platform with a clever cross-kick that the visitors’ defence failed to clear adequately. From the resulting lineout, Craig Smith secured the ball for his forwards, who forced their way towards the tryline and only last-ditch defending prevented a score.

Spa continued this high tempo, with their pack forcing the visitors to defend deep in their 22. Smith and Tom Greevy dominated in the lineout and provided the Leamington backline with plenty of quality possession.

Debutant Dan Kane, took full advantage and mounted several searching runs while John Holland crashed through and was just held up on the Droitwich line.

Finally, Spa got some reward for their dominance and not surprisingly, it came courtesy of their pack.

The visitors had conceded several penalties in quick succession and concerned this may lead to harsher punishment they allowed Spa to set up another superbly engineered rolling maul and Greevy was on hand to get the final touchdown. Tom Jewitt was just off target with the conversion attempt.

Spa’s dominance could not be turned into more points and on a rare incursion into home territory, Droitwich took full advantage of a fumbled ball to race in under the posts for a converted try and 10-5 interval lead.

Droitwich started the second period in a more confident mood, forcing Spa into some deep defending. Alex Carroll alleviated the initial onslaught with a clearance kick and when Droitwich realised the Spa defence was in an uncompromising mood they chose to kick a penalty to increase their lead.

The eight-point margin now meant Spa needed two scores to retake the lead and they then produced the break of the day as Carroll, who looked to give the ball outside, suddenly raced through the gap to cause panic in the Droitwich defence.

Despite their enterprise, Spa could not find the breakthrough they deserved and, when Droitwich broke away in the dying seconds of the game to score in the far corner the die was cast.