Blacks' centre Daniel Loader, who had just made a successful return from a shoulder injury, was carried from the field with an ankle injury during the match.

The Blacks also lost Aaron Malverton through a knee injury, and tough flanker Baeden Terry was taken from the field with a head gash.

The Blacks had tried to have the match postponed as a number of players, including back-rowers Tom and Phil Fleming, centre Cameron Madden and country lock Ant Vrljic, were unable to play.

The match itself was played at a neutral ground at Vikings, where eight spectators braved the rain to watch the first grade Spartan Cup clash, which does not count towards club championship points.

On top of this, there was only one linesman to officiate at the match and the scrums were uncontested.

The match was shortened to 20 minute halves, and Shoalhaven took a 5-nil lead into the break.

At half-time, Shoalhaven generously offered to shorten the second-half to five or 10 minutes, but Blacks captain Michael Krebs, who was a stand-out in the wet at the break-down, was not having a bar of a shorter-shortened game.

"Wait until we get in front and then we will call it off," Krebs said.

In the end, despite the best efforts of the Blacks, Shoalhaven won the match 5-nil.

Blacks' co-coach Robert Taylor was very disappointed at what was a first grade match.

"We tried all avenues to defer the game,"Taylor said.

"We did not even see one Illawarra representative here."

The Shoalhaven Club was also upset with the game.

"Shoalhaven travelled to Wollongong to play a home game at Vikings against Bowral," said coach Bill Eddy.

" The logic in that decision was supposedly to promote the game in Illawarra. The reality ... the game was played in semi darkness on a wet night in front of (fewer than) 40 fans."

Taylor said that the night had some good and bad points for the Blacks.

"The disappointing things is Loads (Daniel Loader)," Taylor said.

"He just came back."

The Blacks were in need of Loader's goal kicking skills, after kicking just four from 12 in their win over Camden last week.