Tom Carleton helped himself to a hat-trick of tries to put his Fylde side back up to 4th in the table with a 48-18 victory over a Wharfedale RUFC side who at one point in the first half had the hosts in real trouble.
Fylde made three changes to the squad that fell to defeat over at Rotherham, with Matt Sturgess returning to the bench, while Ben Turner made his debut alongside Sam Parker who was also amongst the subs.
Chris Briers was also on his own for the game, due to Alex Loney being away, and he was looking for the team to bounce back from that loss away and get themselves back on track and continue to keep fighting at the top end of the table.
The first meeting between these two clubs took place back in December 1995, where Fylde ran out impressive 54-18 winners, and this was the 26th meeting between them, with Fylde having won eighteen of the matches, while the visitors had only managed to win six, with one game also been drawn.
To add to that, Fylde were the highest points scorers in the division so far, having racked up 192 points in the process, while Wharfedale had the 2nd worst defence in the league, only Harrogate have worse, having conceded 175 points.
Fylde and Wharfedale RUFC competed in the same league for numerous years, but after twenty years in the third tier, Wharfedale were relegated from National League 1 back in 2016.
Overcast conditions was also going to make it hard to play any expansive rugby, and with both forwards looking very similar to each other, it would be interesting to see who could get the upper hand in that all important battle.
The visitors started the game brightly, dominating the early stages of the game, and they took an early lead when Jack Blakeney-Edwards slotted over a penalty goal. Fylde were struggling to find the rhythm that they found in the Harrogate game when they racked up 80 points, but they got the first try of the game when Henry Hadfield made a break from inside his own half, before finding the supporting Carleton who raced clear to score.
Greg Smith converted to put them into a 7-3 lead, but Wharfedale RUFC were still having all the possession, and hit back with a try of their own on 22 minutes, after a chip over the top from Blakeney-Edwards was collected by Harry Bullough who put the ball down to score.
Fylde’s cause wasn’t helped when their excellent no 8 Harlan Corrie was forced off with a head injury on the half hour to be replaced by Ben O’Ryan.
Blakeney-Edwards then put over another penalty goal to extend the away side’s advantage to 13-7, but Phil Mills made sure Fylde went it at half-time in front, when he crossed off the back of another superb Carleton break, and with Smith converting, it meant they had two clear chances in the game, and had managed to convert both.
It was a much different story in the second-half though, as Fylde started to play rugby, and their captain Ben Gregory crossed for two tries in the opening 10 minutes to make it 24-13 to his side. Carleton then went over for his second of the afternoon, after a slick passing play to left saw Carleton collect the final pass and power his way over in the corner, before Ben Turner then scored on his debut after Greg Smith delivered an inch perfect kick to the corner where he crossed.
The brilliant Carleton then completed his hat-trick, finishing off another well worked move which saw the returning Matt Sturgess delivering the final pass for Carleton to race clear and touch down.
Tom Forster then raced clear to score an intercept try on 76 minutes and despite Joe Fawcett managing to grab a late consolation try, it had no effect on the result, and the final score was Fylde 48-18 Wharfedale RUFC.
In the end, what started as a frustrating afternoon for the hosts where nothing appeared as though it was going to go right, ended in them still recording a comfortable enough victory but also still giving the coaches plenty to work on with the side ahead of next week’s tricky away trip to Sedgley.
Tom Carleton produced his usual moments of brilliance in the match, while the captain Ben Gregory kickstarted the second-half display which was more like the Fylde we’ve come to know this season, with fast, slick rugby being played.
Sedgley currently sit top of the table though, and haven’t lost a game so far this season, but if Fylde can get one or two players back from injury, such as David Fairbrother and even bring Matt Sturgess back into the starting line-up again after making a brief appearance from the subs bench.
Fylde are then back at the Woodlands on the 23rd October, where Bournville will be the visitors.
Click here for Chris Farrow’s photographs. https://bit.ly/3lq6MzV
FYLDE: 15 Tom Carleton; 14 Henry Hadfield, 13 Tom Forster, 12 Scott Rawlings, 11 Ben Turner; 10 Greg Smith, 9 Adam Lanigan (Matt Sturgess 40); 1 Zack Barrow (Sam Kyle-Clay), 2 Ben Gregory (Sam Parker 70), 3 Corey Bowker, 4 Olli Parkinson, 5 Matt Garrod, 6 Marcus Blake (Tane Bentley 58), 7 Phill Mills, 8 Harlan Corrie (Ben O’Ryan 30).
WHARFEDALE: 15 Harry Bullough; 14 Rian Hamilton, 13 Oscar Canny, 12 Tom Davidson, 11 Oli Cicognini; 10 Jack Blakeney-Edwards, 9 Lewis Kincart; 1 Matt Beesley, 2 Dan Stockdale (c), George Altham, 4 Simon Borrill, 5 Ben Leacock, 6 Rhys Green, 7 Jack Pinder, Ben Markey.
16 Sam Dickinson, 17 Tom Jackson, 18 Joe Fawcett, 19 Owen Bullock, 20 Sam Gaudie
