Nuneaton Old Es 17 Leamington 9: Fine margins as Leamington come out on wrong end of two crucial decisions

The afternoon was also overshadowed by a serious neck injury to Leamington skipper Danny Ruyssevelt midway through the second half.

This was the third time this season these two sides have met and each time Leamington have failed to get a result.

After an open first period, Spa went ahead in the 13th minute courtesy of a Tom Secher penalty.

The hosts responded immediately, gaining good ground in the Spa half.

From a lineout, they whipped the ball along the backline and outsmarted the Spa defence to claim an unconverted score.

With the game being played at a high tempo, Spa scored what seemed a quite brilliant try only to see it chalked off for offside.

They won the ball at a scrum and Alex Carroll sent over the deftest of chips to the blindside wing. Jamie Harrison was first to react and raced in between two defenders to score.

However, the match official deemed he was in an offside position when the ball was kicked.

Leamington were working very well with Dan Kane and Mike Kelly and Danny Ruyssevelt putting in plenty of strong tackles to break up Old Eds’ momentum.

The lineout was once again in secure hands but one area Leamington will be disappointed with is with their defence as once again an error allowed the hosts another unconverted score.

Secher slotted over a penalty to reduce the deficit to four points at the interval.

The visitors began the second period with a series of punishing drives from the scrum which were rewarded with a further penalty from Secher to bring it back to 10-9.

Spa continued to press home their advantage with play concentrated in the Nuneaton 22.

From series of scrums, they won good ball, but despite a tremendous effort they found it impossible to break through the home defensive wall.

With 18 minutes of the second half having elapsed, Spa lost the influential Ruyssevelt to a serious neck injury, which saw the game held up while the situation was dealt with by paramedics.

On resumption, Spa succumbed to more bad fortune as Nuneaton put together a quickfire attack up the nearside wing.

With the defence split, the hosts raced through and despite their final pass appearing forward, play was allowed to continue and the hosts claimed a converted score.

In the final, tense minutes of the game, Spa threw all they had at Nuneaton but to no avail.

 Leamington under-11s claimed two wins and a draw from their meeting with Claverdon.

Kofi Miller, Tom Treharne, Will Callan and Joe Higginson scored ina 4-0, with Callan adding a brace in a 4-4 draw.

Callan continued his try-scoring streak as Spa won the third encounter 3-2.