National 1: Fylde Leave Loughborough Winless

Fylde rugby club continued their great early-season form this weekend with a convincing 43-25 over Loughborough Students, who are still without a win this year.

Around the grounds Ealing and Richmond continued their great form with victories over Cinderford and Tynedale respectively. Both sides remain locked at the top of the table on 24 points.

Elsewhere there were big wins for Coventry over Wharfedale and another for university side Hartpury, who look to be settling into their new birth well with a 30-19 victory over Esher.

However, newly promoted Macclesfield are enduring a torrid time in their new league, after falling 41-12 to Darlington Mowden Park they still remain without a win.

  

Fylde eventually overcame Loughborough Students by 43-25 on a curate's egg of a day – the weather & the rugby - at the Woodlands. When Fylde led by 31-7 at the end of the third quarter of the game it looked like the higher placed National One side would ease to another big win.

But they took their collective foot off the gas and the Students gave them the shock of their lives with an unanswered 18 points in 12 minutes and got to within a converted try of the hosts.

Oli Brennand's two late tries gave the scoreline a final, rather flattering, look but secured a ultimately deserved bonus points win. But there was some fine, attacking rugby from both teams on display for a big and noisy crowd bolstered by the young players from Kirkham & Lancaster Royal Grammar schools who had played a curtain raiser before the senior match. Fylde go up one place to 3rd in National One whilst the visitors are still looking for their first win of the campaign in 14th spot. A try scoring bonus point was at least some deserved consolation for the Students.

It had been a difficult week for Head Coach Mark Nelson as he shuffled his injury hit squad. Missing seven forwards – Birchall, Rylance, Lewis, Phillips, Rawlings, Fairbrother & Gore – was always going to be problematic. But the squad players covering these gaps did very well and fronted up manfully to a highly motivated & able Students squad.

Fylde started the game on the front foot and were soon pressing inside the Loughborough half. They went through their repertoire of close handling and off loading but either they were too elaborate or the crucial passes didn't quite stick. They attacked centre field in the 11th minute and were awarded a penalty 25m out in front of the posts. In typical style, Chris Johnson spurned a straightforward penalty kick and chose to 'tap & go'. He moved the ball left and Scott Rawlings powered through the visitors defence & over the line with hardly a hand laid on him. Johnson surprisingly missed the conversion when his kick cannoned off the upright.

Four minutes later Fylde attacked once more and this time after numerous phases skipper Evan Stewart forced his way over the line from close range against his old university, to his delight as well as that of his Lancaster Royal Grammar School students in the stand. Johnson added the extras and Fylde were 12-0 up and comfortable.

But in the see-saw style of the whole game, the Students hit back on the half hour when, following a scrummage 30m out from the Fylde line, they launched some sharp handling going right which ended with fullback Will Edwards scoring a good try. Fly-half Josh Sharp made the conversion and reduced the deficit to 7-12. The game went through a tetchy spell with a few cases of 'handbags' & scuffles between the players. Experienced referee Llyr ApGeraint-Roberts handled the situation well, calming down the miscreants without need to show yellow cards for such minor trouble.

In the 35th minute Fylde started a trademark move from their own 22m line and winger Oli Brennand broke quickly along the left touchline. He went 50m, swerving in and out, waiting for support to arrive before finding centre Chris Briers on the inside with a lovely pass. Briers raced 30m to score a delightful try. Johnson converted for a 19-7 lead at the interval.

Fylde like nothing better than broken play but are sometimes less convincing in the tight exchanges. Their scrummage was solid with neither side having a tangible advantage in the first half but their lineout was rather a lottery throughout. However, some injudicious Loughborough Students in-field kicking gave the home side plenty of opportunities to launch sweeping attacks from deep positions.

In the 54th minute from one such kick fullback Warren Spragg ran from deep, found Oli Brennand who made a scorching break down the left. The move was halted momentarily by the Students defence but a couple of phases later scrum-half Ryan De La Harpe went blind and fed Scott Rawlings. Although the big man couldn't make it to the try line he stayed on his feet and cleverly offloaded to Brennand who had the easiest of tasks to finish off in the left corner. The conversion attempt from wide out by Chris Johnson drifted just wide but Fylde had extended their lead to 24-7.

Loughborough continued their attacking approach and threw the ball about in exciting fashion. Unfortunately for them, Rawlings spotted a long pass along their backline early and intercepted it 40m from the visitors line. He rampaged through the middle and had enough momentum and a strong enough hand off to score an opportunistic try near the posts, his fourth of a productive first season for Fylde. Johnson converted and Fylde, well clear at 31-7 up, were looking forward to a comfortable last quarter of further dominance. Well, it didn't work out that way at all.

By this stage, with replacements for both teams introduced including young Fylde debutant Ben Corless, the Students took the upper hand in the scrummages and forced a number of penalties. Together with this superiority, their backline began to achieve penetration against a previously rock solid Fylde defence. In the 60th minute a swift move down the Students left resulted in a fast break and excellent finish by left wing Jonny Sharp who scored wide out. The conversion was nowhere near the mark but just two minutes later the visitors were over the line again, this time from a neat finish by replacement back Sam Pointon. Once again the conversion was wide and at 31-17 Fylde still had a comfortable lead. But they had lost momentum and were struggling for possession.

In the 66th minute the Students were pressing hard inside the Fylde 22m line and no 8 Matt Rogerson forced his way over from close range for a 4th try bonus point. Needless to say, the conversion again went wide but the Students were flying and saw a real chance of a major upset. Three Students tries in six minutes had completely punctured Fylde's over confidence and the alarm bells were ringing.

In the 72nd minute a Fylde defender offended and fullback Will Edwards opted to kick a straightforward penalty from in front of the posts to put his side within a converted try from snatching a dramatic lead.

But when the going gets tough the tough get going. In typical fashion, Fylde didn't try to close the game down with percentage rugby but, in the 79th minute, launched a lovely long range break down the left out with the ball going through several pairs of hands. Oli Brennand was the final beneficiary and scored near the corner. By now Chris Johnson has been replaced by Richard Kenyon so Ryan De La Harpe took over the goal kicking responsibilities. He was unable to convert Brennand's try but with minutes to go his side had a 36-25 lead.

But Brennand hadn't finished his afternoon's work. As Loughborough tried to stage a final sweeping attack inside the Fylde half, Brennand spotted the high looped pass, intercepted and ran 60m for his hat trick try. This was his 7th of the season and puts him equal top of National One's try scoring ranking along with Richmond's Chris Davies.

All in all, this was a helter skelter game with lots of mistakes but also some fine running rugby to entertain a big crowd. Fylde have lots to work on in training this week and will hope that they to have some players returning for a tricky trip to the other top English university side in the National Leagues, Hartpury College.

Fylde Head Coach Mark Nelson said: “Any game against a team desperate for a win is always going to be challenging. I thought that we played with real ambition from all areas of the field and our commitment to play and attacking game was self evident. Ambition is summed up by “do not be stifled or stunted by a fear of failure". A by-product is that errors can happen and opponents may seize opportunities. No one should underestimate the ability of Loughborough. They have pushed five of the top half sides very close and our result and performance should be viewed in that light. It was a very very good effort by all 20 players. I also would like to praise the less experienced players who have taken their chance due to injuries. Six of yesterday's squad have played for the Hawks this season and Mark Stephenson and Warren Atkinson are doing a tremendous job in preparing players to step up and perform well at National 1 whilst producing a Hawks team that is winning home and away.

"Finally a mention must go to the gentleman with the hardest job on a matchday, our 4th Official Brendan Coe. With up to 20 interchanges to make and constant uhhming and ahhing and dithering decision making about substitutions by hyped up coaches like myself, Brendan is put under a lot of pressure in a role he does for 'fun' …. Brendan, I am working on it!"