Fylde continued their pressure in the top group of National Two (North) clubs with another high scoring victory on the road. Fylde had lost all three of their previous games against Sheffield Tigers and for the first 40 minutes the contest was delicately balanced. Once Tom Carleton had scored Fylde’s third try in the 44th minute, the flood gates opened and the visitors pulled away for a clear victory. This was another case of a Fylde game of two halves, with a fine 2nd half display including five tries after a tight first 40 minutes.
A third way through the 2021-22 season, Fylde remain the heaviest scoring team amongst the 47 clubs in the three National Leagues having run up 418 points with a staggering 63 tries in their ten matches. They move up one place to 4th in the division.
The weather at the beautiful but exposed Dore Moor ground at Fylde’s two previous visits in January 2019 and December 2019 was harsh but this match was played in quiet, benevolent conditions which suited Fylde’s open, running game. Fylde’s ambitions weren’t helped by a late training injury to prop Zack Barrow which saw the Hawks’ young tighthead Ethan Hulme brought into the match squad. Injuries and ‘unavailabilities’ are seriously testing the depth of the coaches’ playing resources. Centre Tom Forster and Adam Lewis had work commitments this weekend and they joined a crop of injured team mates including Connor Wilkinson, Scott Jordan and Harlan Corrie as well as Barrow who were unavailable for selection.
Playing downhill on the sloping pitch Fylde dominated the early minutes of the game and were quickly on the scoreboard. They attacked down their left in the first minute, flanker Phill Mills carried the ball powerfully and off loaded to fullback Tom Grimes who forced his way over for the opening try. Greg Smith converted for a 0-7 lead.
Tom Grimes was playing for the first time at Fylde in the fullback spot and put in some excellent early long kicks downfield. In the 8th minute Fylde won a lineout and a rolling maul resulted in skipper Ben Gregory driving over. The conversion was missed.
The Tigers fought their way into the match and exerted pressure inside the Fylde 22m area. The visitors defence held firm thanks to aggressive tackling. Olli Parkinson and Matt Garrod began to dominate the line-outs, securing their own ball and disrupting a number of the Tigers’ throws. However, errors crept into their play, they struggled with discipline and conceded numerous penalties right up to half-time. Additionally, handling errors undermined their attempts to sustain attacking in the Tigers’ half.
In the 26th minute a series of drives by the Tigers’ pack sucked in Fylde defenders and the home backs moved right with a long pass to winger Rob Davidson who strolled in for an easy try through an underpopulated defence. The conversion drifted wide but the deficit had been reduced to 5-12.
The Tigers continued to batter their way towards the Fylde line in the last 15 minutes of the 1st half and Fylde continued to fall foul of referee Caunt. The visitors’ cause wasn’t helped by the sinbinning of Marcus Blake in the 12th minute and David Fairbrother in the 37th. Given the circumstances leading up to the half-time interval and, in particular, the amount of possession the Tigers had enjoyed, Fylde were fortunate to go into the break in the lead.
The 2nd half was quite different. Suddenly, Fylde’s discipline improved and their running game was unleashed. Still down to 14 players, in the 44th minute their backs attacked down the right and Henry Hadfield, who had a storming game throughout, released Tom Carleton who sped past defenders to score a crucial try for a 5-17 lead.
Three minutes later Carleton was at it again, this time down the left side. He saw a gap in the Tigers defence and accelerated through it to score near the posts. Greg Smith converted and Fylde were stretching away at 5-24.
It was the turn of the Tigers’ discipline to falter under the pressure of Fylde’s rejuvenated 2nd half assault. Prop Will Bennett was shown a yellow card for a high tackle. Fylde immediately profited as they scored the best try of the day. From well inside their own half, Carleton and Sam Fisher linked up before Carleton on the ball again released Greg Smith who burst through to score under the posts. He added the conversion for a 5-31 lead.
The Tigers earned some sustained pressure inside the Fylde half and on the 63rd minute from a series of drives near the line replacement backrower Connor Scott forced his way over to score. Another replacement, N2N’s second top points scorer Mark Ireland, converted to reduce the deficit.
This was just a temporary comeback as Fylde added two further tries in the dying moments. Tigers Head Coach Jamie Broadley had come off the replacements bench in the 2nd half and he was yellow carded ten minutes before the final whistle. In the 72nd minute a Fylde attack once again down the left saw Scott Rawlings driving into the Tigers defence 35m out and with a lovely off-load freed Carleton who needed no further invitation to race in for his hat trick try.
In injury time, Tom Carleton finished off his highly productive afternoon by finding another gap in the Tigers defence to score once again for a final 12-43 result.
Questions were raised in a few supporters’ heads about the idea of playing of Tom Carleton at outside centre, not over his attacking abilities in a tighter midfield but in his defensive strengths. He answered this in the most definitive way with faultless and aggressive tackling as well as his four superb tries. If ever there was a ‘man of the match’ performance this was it.
With successive victories on the road, Fylde’s attentions now turn to Saturday’s game against Hull Ionians at the Woodlands (ko 15.00). Ionians are one of six leading clubs in N2N who are pulling away somewhat from the other clubs. They have a very mixed record against the East Yorkshire club and will be looking to continue their winning run.
Click here for video coverage of Fylde’s tries.
Click here for action photos from the game by Darren George.
Sheffield Tigers: 15 Joe Duffy (Mark Ireland 53); 14 Rob Davidson, 13 Sam Wager (Jamie Broadley 47), 12 Oliver Church, 11 Greg Mellor; 10 Tom Farrell (Charles Cone 73), 9 Otis Floyd; 1 Will Bennett, 2 Will Archer (Connor Scott 48), 3 Charles Cone (Tom Taylor-Dawes 61), 4 Henry Rank (Tom Calladine 33), 5 Joe Fitzsimons, 6 Angus Hughes, 7 Louis Townsend (Will Archer 59), 8 Tom Taylor-Dawes (George Anderson 51).
Fylde: 15 Tom Grimes; 14 Henry Hadfield, 13 Tom Carleton, 12 Scott Rawlings, 11 Sam Fisher; 10 Greg Smith (Adam Lanigan 74), 9 Matt Sturgess; 1 Sam Kyle-Clay, 2 Ben Gregory (c), 3 Corey Bowker (Ethan Hulme 74), 4 Olli Parkinson (Sam Parker 64), 5 Matt Garrod, 6 Marcus Blake (Ben O’Ryan 58), 7 Phill Mills (Ben Turner 76), 8 David Fairbrother.
