Injuries take their toll as Spartans blank Leamington

Leamington number eight Craig Smith, opens up the Spartans defence.
Picture: Gina Ruyssevelt — Leamington number eight Craig Smith, opens up the Spartans defence. Picture: Gina Ruyssevelt

With the wind in their favour in the first half, Spa produced some enterprising play with Mark Baldwin nipping in to steal the ball off the opposition and break clear and then Patrick Northover claiming the ball from a scrum and linking up with Danny Ruyssevelt to heap pressure on Spartans.

With Spa in control, good work from Tom Jewitt and Marcus Pask set the hosts’ nerves jangling.

However, on the half-hour, Spartans worked their way into Spa territory for the first time and took full advantage of a penalty award to kick themselves into the lead.

Then, as Leamington felt a prolonged threat for the first time, the hosts increased their advantage with a converted score for a 10-0 interval lead.

Leamington opened up the second period with a clever break from Craig Smith who linked up with Ruyssevelt.

Disappointingly for Spa, injuries started to impact. With Tom Daplyn already forced out in the warm-up, Nick Maxwell suffered an ankle injury.

Ruyssevelt then had to go off with a head injury and, in the latter stages, Spa were forced down to 14 men when Danny Kane was concussed.

Spartans were playing with a lot more determination in this period and hit Spa with two relatively quick-fire scores to take the game out of their reach.