Loughborough Students 28 vs Fylde 32: report by Simon Taylor
Fylde kicked off 2022 with an excellent bonus point away win, although not without enduring a tough examination of their credentials at the hands of the students of Loughborough. After racing into a 19-0 lead within 15 minutes they had to withstand a fierce fightback in the second half and see out a nervy final 10 minutes. This they did to record only their second win in eleven visits to Loughborough.
After a deluge of rain all day which persisted right until kick off the weather relented, and the game was played in dry conditions with only a mild wind. The artificial pitch provided a firm playing surface and Fylde were playing a team with a very similar style to their own, keen to run the ball as much as possible, which all boded well for the spectators.
Fylde started at a pace and accuracy level that threatened to overpower the home team. They monopolised possession and moved the ball with zip and zest, stretching the defence of the students. With only 3 minutes on the clock phased play created space for Henry Hadfield to race into the right corner and ground the ball under heavy traffic. Greg Smith missed the difficult touchline conversion, but Fylde were ahead at 5-0.
This soon become 12-0 after 8 minutes, the move starting deep in Fylde’s territory with a fine turnover in the tackle by wing forward Ben O’Ryan. Hadfield took the ball on and fed Tom Forster, he drew the last man and slipped the ball to scrum half Matt Sturgess. Sturgess, sporting a natty pair of tights which outdid those Tom Carleton was wearing showed a clean pair of heels to outstrip the covering defence and dot down under the posts for an excellent team try, the easy conversion being added by Smith.
Fylde were now in full-flow, and they stretched their lead to 19-0 on 13 minutes when the prolific Tom Carleton was on the end of good work by Tom Grimes to coast around the last man for his 19th try of the season and give Smith another easy conversion. Fylde could not hope to keep a fine set of students out of the game for ever and Loughborough found their way into the game. They forced a penalty which gave them a 5-yard line out and went for the catch and drive. Fylde defended this well and the Loughborough hooker Aniebonam in his frustration overstepped the aggression threshold and was yellow carded, allowing Fylde to clear their lines.
The remainder of the first half was evenly contested with few real scoring opportunities until Fylde rather shot themselves in the foot. Another fine tackle area turnover penalty was earnt by O’Ryan but rather than clear their lines Fylde chose to tap and run from their own 22. A stray, and, in truth, poor pass went to ground, Loughborough pounced and their impressive number 8 Nic Jakobsen surged over for the try, converted by Luca Caplin on 36 minutes. It was a case of ‘you live by the sword, you die by the sword’ and the half ended with Fylde 19-7 up.
Fylde started the second half strongly and on 43 minutes extended their lead. After good build up play Sturgess showed an eye for the gap close to the line and went over for his second try of the day. Smith converted and at 26-7 the bonus point was in the bag. With a healthy lead restored, Fylde might have thought their day was going to become more comfortable – it was to be anything but that.
On 47 minutes Loughborough again flexed their young muscles and forced Fylde to concede a couple of quick penalties which left them defending a 5-yard lineout catch and drive once more. This time Fylde could not negate it and hooker Dave Aniebonam was smuggled over for the try, converted by Caplin, and the lead was cut to 26-14. Both teams then made front row changes. Fylde brought on Joe Higgins and Corey Bowker for Kyle-Clay and Ashcroft. A notable entrance to the fray for the home team was Jack Rowntree, who has clearly inherited the prop gene his father Graham displayed for many years for Leicester and England.
Loughborough now had their best spell of the game and ramped up the pressure on Fylde with strong midfield breaks and quick recycling of the phases. This stretched the Fylde defence thin and created space out wide for George Barber to score a try on 50 minutes, again converted by Caplin. Suddenly the Students were within a try of Fylde at 26-21. Fylde managed to force a penalty of their own on 53 minutes and Greg Smith pragmatically kicked this to stretch the Fylde lead back out to two scores at 29-21.
Marcus Blake joined the fray replacing Matt Garrod and Fylde sought to wrestle control back. An excellent long-range break from Sturgess looked promising but the move was snuffed out. A catch and drive opportunity was also defused and turned over by stout home defence. Loughborough fought their way up-field and Fylde were both penalised and reduced to 14 men on 65 minutes when Scott Rawling was adjudged to have been over-robust in entering the maul. This left Fylde a man down in the back line and on 70 minutes they were made to pay.
Sam Blade at outside centre had a very strong game for Loughborough and he made a decisive mid-field break which included the extremely rare sight of Fylde’s talisman Dave Fairbrother being shrugged off in the tackle as he attempted to cover the space made absent by the fact Rawlings was still in detention on the side-lines. Blade threw the long pass out and Dan James went in for the try, converted by Alex Wainwright. Fylde’s lead was now a nervy single point with 10 minutes left.
The last stanza was fiercely contested with both teams knowing any error, indiscretion or missed tackle could decide the game. A deft offload created a huge burst up the middle by Jakobsen threatening all of Fylde’s hard work but under pressure the supporting player knocked on and Fylde breathed again as they were restored to 15 men. Carleton and Sturgess then made excellent breaks, but the home defence scrambled effectively, and a Smith drop goal attempt drifted wide.
The tension mounted and it was down to keep-ball tactics for Fylde as they stayed camped in the opposition half. The students desperately tried to force a crucial turnover but were penalised in their attempts to do so. They had replacement backrower Jack Shine yellow carded and Fylde forced one last penalty. Greg Smith took all the time he was permitted in lining up the kick at goal and slotted it to push the lead out to 32-28. With no time left a very hard fought fifth away win of the season was finally wrapped up and everyone associated with Fylde could exhale.
The Fylde coaches Alex Loney and Chris Briers named Henry “hell of a handful” Hadfield man of the match for his hard carrying, hard hitting and high number of positive impacts on the game. In truth there were a number of outstanding displays. Matt Sturgess probably had his best game in a Fylde shirt and Harlan Corrie was immense in the tackle and ball-carrying departments. Tom Forster was assured and solid at full back.
The unsung front row also deserves a mention, all four young props providing a solid foundation with their skipper Ben Gregory always a consistently high performer. The guest ambassador Adrian Kyle-Clay claimed credit for his son Sam listening to his advice to run aggressive lines and use his short arm hand-off and deft offloads to good effect. All told it was an excellent all-round team performance and a great game, Fylde deserving of their 5 league points and Loughborough their 2 losing bonus points.
Alex Loney said “we are extremely pleased with a bonus point win away from home after 3 weeks of not playing. Our first 15 minutes was outstanding, but we knew the fit, skilful and energetic students would come back into the game. We handled the nervy last 10 minutes well with good, sensible game management and take 5 valuable league points back home. This is a great start to 2022 for us and we need to maintain our standards going forward.”
Click here for video coverage of Fylde’s four tries.
Teams:
Fylde: Forster, Grimes, Carleton, Rawlings, Hadfield, Smith, Sturgess, Ashcroft (Higgins 50), Gregory (c), Kyle-Clay (Bowker 50), Parkinson, Garrod (Blake 61), Corrie, O’Ryan, Fairbrother.
Non-playing replacements: Lanigan, Partington
Loughborough Students: Wainwright, Sanders (James 11), Blade, Langston (Caplin 79), Barber, Caplin (Sanders 65), Petrozzi (Burgwin 56), Philipson, Aniebonam (Bell 61), Toms (Rowntree 50), Atuanya, Adlington, Jennings (Bell 25, Jennings 34, Shine 50), Tunney, Jakobsen (Aniebonam 80).
Photos courtesy of Simon Taylor and Ian Pearson.
