3rd v 4th in National One as Fylde meet Coventry at the Woodlands

Fylde welcome old and distinguished friends and rivals Coventry to the Woodlands on Saturday (ko 3pm) in a National One top four fixture which brings together clubs that have been in close league proximity all season.

The Lancastrians in 3rd place will be looking to maintain their fine home run of form with their 10th successive victory, and in the outstanding style of recent performances against Doncaster, Loughborough Students & Esher. They will also be looking to do much better than their 5-32 defeat at Butt Park Arena in early November, by some measure their biggest loss of the season.

Without the distraction of competing 6 Nations games, Fylde will be hoping for another large crowd to encourage the home players, with a number of Coventry supporters expected to make the trip and contribute to the Woodlands atmosphere.  

The two clubs have somewhat similar records so far in this campaign. Fylde have scored more tries, Coventry kicked more penalties. Coventry have won one more match, Fylde have earned more bonus points. Despite walloping opponents at the Butts Park Arena – Blackheath (63-21), Cinderford (38-13), Henley Hawks (32-15) & Worthing Raiders (47-7) – Coventry have had more problems away from home. After saying that, they have had fewer disappointments than Fylde who have really struggled away from the Woodlands. The dichotomy between home and away performances is very puzzling but by no means exceptional in this division. With the benefit of a last minute 50m penalty goal by fullback Barry Davies, Coventry edged a very tight contest by 20-17 at home to Richmond last Saturday whilst the Fylde squad benefited from a weekend off.

Fylde & Coventry have enjoyed regular fixtures for more than 50 years but up to two seasons ago there had been a gap of 12 years between games, the last one being in the Allied Dunbar Premiership 2nd division in 1998/9, one of  Fylde's two traumatic seasons at level 2. Although Fylde won only a handful of matches that season and were relegated at the end of it, they did beat Coventry at the Woodlands by 27-22 after suffering a 9-64 trouncing in Coventry earlier in that campaign.

Apart from league & cup wins on the Coventry ground in 1994/5, Fylde had never won at their old and famous Coundon Road ground in 50 years of trying. But '50 years of hurt' came to an end last season in March when Fylde won 24-23 at Butts Park Arena in the last minute of the game through a Chris Johnson dropped goal. This followed an earlier Fylde win in October 2012 by 22-20 at the Woodlands with an 80th minute Dan Birchall try.

In the last 17 seasons there have been 18 league & cup matches between the clubs, shared evenly with nine wins each.

Season	Level	Woodlands	Away	Cup
		F-C	F-C	Away
1985/6		9-22
1987/8	3	33-26
1993/4	3	15-6	18-24		Promoted with Cov
1994/5	2	22-8	21-17	45-7	Relegated with Cov
1995/6	3	13-16	7-42
1997/8	2	15-23	7-16
1998/9	2	27-22	9-64
2011/2	3	45-14	26-39
2012/3	3	22-20	24-23
2013/4	3		5-32

Coventry and Fylde were two levels apart four seasons ago. But although they maintained Championship (level 2) status for thirteen seasons, Cov's last financial crisis in 2009 in which they were in administration led ultimately to relegation to National One (level 3) in April 2010. Once at the pinnacle of English rugby and producing a long list of international players, Coventry is still a big club with a large and loyal following. This may not be as large as in their heyday but, nevertheless, it marks them out as one of the handful of  N1 clubs that have real substance on and off the pitch. Coventry's crowds are healthy and they exceed all other N1 clubs with an average of almost 1,200 attending home matches.

Coventry are really a Championship club in waiting. They have excellent facilities and a highly professional commercial approach. With the benefit of a clutch of major sponsors & a successful hospitality offering, they have significant budgets which exceed many other N1 rivals.

If Fylde are punching above their weight in terms of resources and performance, reading the Coventry message board over the past couple of seasons suggests there is tangible disappointment amongst supporters at their strong squad's failure to press at the very top of the table.

Head Coach Scott Morgan, a former Wales international and still plying his trade in Cov's 2nd row, inherited a number of players from his predecessor Phil Maynard who now has another role at the Club. Morgan undertook an aggressive recruitment campaign in the summer with the import of no less than 18 new players, many of whom have high quality and substantial Championship & sometimes Premiership experience.

Recent seasons have seen significant changes in the squad, with one batch of players coming in and another batch leaving. Few of their squad have come through their youth teams. This is different to Fylde's approach which is more conservative and has been concerned with the development of a competitive squad which includes several players who have either come through its youth ranks or have been with the Club for several seasons.

Coventry's much travelled newcomers include goal kicking fly-half Matthew Jones (Bristol, formerly full Wales & Wales U'21s cap, Ospreys, Moseley, London Welsh, Worcester & Dragons); wingers Mark Kohler (Bedford Blues) & Ian Clark (Hartpury College, formerly Gloucester); scrum-half Louis Silver (Doncaster, formerly Bristol, Stourbridge, Worcester & Moseley); fullback or centre Barry Davies (Jersey, Ospreys, Brive & Scarlets) & wing/centre Will Hurrell (Stourbridge).

Forwards recruits included: props Tim Ryan (Gwent Dragons, Cavalierie Prato, Newcastle Falcons, Toulon & Munster); Andy Brown(Doncaster, formerly Bedford Blues & Leicester Tigers); Ignas Darkintis (Birmingham/Solihull) & Chad Thorne (Hartpury College & England Students); hooker Chris Locke (Bedford Blues & Loughborough Students); South African-born Portugal qualified backrower Geré Mareé(Academica Coimbra, formerly Western Province SA); & flanker Rob Nash (Ebbw Vale, formerly Pontypool).

Showing the determination and resources to maintain a top four campaign, when injuries have struck they've whistled up quality replacements including backrower Sam Pailor (from Welsh Premiership side Swansea & formerly with the Dragons U'18 and U'20, Wales U'20s, Bedford Blues & Doncaster Knights) and more recently 29 years old South African lock Roan Van Heerden, who has played Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup rugby for the Leopards in his homeland. Apart from Doncaster, few N1 clubs have the wherewithall to strengthen their squad at this stage of the season in this way.

Of their more established players, influential members of their very strong pack include lock Tom Poole & backrowers Brett Daynes, South African-born & Portuguese international Jacques le Roux & Matt Tibbatts. Their high quality backline includes recent England Counties team mate of Fylde's clutch of players v Ireland Clubs, centre Luke Myring (ex-L'Aquila, Northampton & Leicester Tigers) & goal kicking fullback Cliffie Hodgson (formerly with Rotherham Titans) who is National One's leading scorer with 286 points. Leading try scorers to date are winger Will Hurrell (12) and Hodgson (9).

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Unlike Coventry, Fylde had a spare Saturday last weekend and will hope that their players will have benefited from a break. Skipper Evan Stewart, who has m,issed the last five games, is almost back to fitness and is likely to come into selection contention in the near future. Fylde are blessed with strong backrow competition so his return, when it happens will raise tricky selection issues.