Fylde 79 Blaydon 31: report by Elliot Burrow
It was points galore down at the Woodlands on Saturday, as Fylde put in a ruthless display in attack to run out 79 – 31 winners over Blaydon.
The sun was out and shining down at the ground, which made it completely different playing conditions from the last time Fylde were here in that disappointing performance against Sedgley.
Despite losing their perfect 100% home record in the league that day, a brilliant first-half last week down in the Midlands against Bournville where they led 47 – 0, looked as though the result against Sedgley was nothing more than a one off.
However, they made changes during the break, and lost the momentum they had gained in the opening 40, and ended up not scoring a single point in the second period, and holding on to a 47 – 33 win.
They did have another chance though to put in a well rounded 80 minutes against Blaydon, who sat towards the lower end of the table, and had only managed to pick up four wins so far in the season.
Fylde won the reverse fixture between the two sides back in October, winning 40 – 20, but they were hoping there was going to be a far wider margin by the end of the game today.
They made two changes to their starting line-up from their game of two halves last week.
David Fairbrother returned back at number eight, while Matt Ashcroft started at tighthead prop, as the home side looked to make amends for last time they played here against Sedgley with a far more convincing display.
It didn’t take them long to get the ball rolling, there was only six minutes on the clock when Greg Smith, who was starting to dictate play, sent a flat pass to Charlie Partington, who broke the line and found Tom Grimes out on the left wing, who only had to put the ball down to open the scoring, Smith converted.
Moments later they were in again, Tom Carleton made a break this time, before offloading to the supporting Matt Sturgess who opened his account for the afternoon, Smith stepped up and converted again to make it 14 – 0.
Sturgess was doing what any good scrum-half should do, and supporting the play excellently early on, and this time he benefitted from a David Fairbrother break to go over for his 2nd try in as many minutes, Smith once again had no problems with the kick.
It was already looking like a steep mountain for Blaydon to climb if they wanted to get anything from the match, and things continued to get worse for the visitors, as Fylde captain Ben Gregory broke through their defensive line this time and set up Tom Carleton, who as we all know by now wasn’t for catching.
Smith was left with a tricky task this time of converting from the touchline, and his effort sailed wide of the posts, but Fylde looked to have this game out of sight already.
Blaydon were playing with no fear when they had the ball in hand, and on 18 minutes they made the most of being near the Fylde line when they sliced open the Fylde defence for Owen Chaplin to go over and get them up and running.
John Clarkson stepped up and converted, but as soon as they had managed to get themselves on the scoreboard, they were straight back up the other end conceding, as Tom Grimes broke up the left edge, and produced a delightful chip kick over the covering defence to find Matt Sturgess, who was once again in the right place at the time to score. Smith converted, and Fylde led 33 – 7 with only 20 minutes gone on the clock.
The visitors were at least starting to see more of the ball now, and when they did get close to the try-line they were more than efficient and good enough to get over it.
This time Ethan Clarke picked up fast ball from the back of the ruck to dive over and score, but whenever they seemed to be building any momentum, the wrecking ball that was the Fylde response came in and knocked it all down.
Fairbrother made another good break up the middle before his resulting pass went to ground, but he needn’t have feared, as Carleton was there to pick up the pieces and run the remaining 40 metres to score his second of the game.
Smith couldn’t have had it any easier to add to his already impressive points tally in the league so far this season, and Fylde were coasting.
Clarke scored his second for the visitors before half-time to reduce the deficit to 40 – 17 at the break, but Fylde just had to see the game out now and the points were well and truly wrapped up.
Ben Gregory got the second-half up and running with what would be his first of three tries in the half, but Blaydon responded once more when Iwan Stephens dived in at the corner.
Fylde were finding it too easy to break the Blaydon defence though, and Carleton cut through it like a hot knife through butter, and found the man of the first half in Sturgess who walked in for his fourth try.
Smith couldn’t convert from the tricky position, but Henry Hadfield decided that he wanted to get in on this try scoring act, and went over for two brilliant solo tries that also weren’t converted as Fylde went further clear.
Adam Lanigan came of the bench and scored almost immediately, before Stephens produced an outstanding solo effort of his own for the away side, a player who certainly looked like he had a bright future ahead of him.
Captain Gregory though quite clearly felt the score-line wasn’t big enough, and took action into his own hands with two further scores to wrap up his second-half hat-trick, and with Carleton converting both, it meant in total there was 110 points scored over the 80 minutes, with Fylde running out 79 – 31 winners.
Joint head coach Chris Briers was on his own today, with no Alex Loney by his side, and he would’ve been pleased with some of the tries that his team scored out there.
Matt Sturgess showed how easy it was to score, with his four tries all coming from supporting breaks that Fylde had made.
Despite not scoring himself, David Fairbrother was excellent back at eight, making plenty of breaks and setting up some of the tries, but in attack, it was a superb display from the team, and was quite simply at times a case of who was going to score next.
To their credit, Blaydon stuck in, and played with no fear what so ever when they had the ball in hand, Iwan Stephens looking like a good player in the making with the way he took both of his tries.
Shipping 31 points though stopped Fylde putting in the perfect all round performance, but they still picked up a bonus point win without it ever really looking like it was going to be anything else after 10 minutes.
They moved back up to third in the table, with the teams around them still having games in hand to be played, and they are back at home next week, when they take on 10th placed Sheffield Tigers.
Click here for Chris Farrow’s fine album of action photos.
Teams:
Fylde: Turner, Hadfield, Carleton, Forster, Grimes, Smith, Sturgess (Lanigan 63), Kyle-Clay (Higgins 53), Gregory, Ashcroft (Bowker 53), Parkinson, Garrod, Partington, O’Ryan (Blake 40), Fairbrother (O’Ryan 72).
Non-playing replacement: Corrie.
Blaydon: Bailey; Sommersall, Ashman, Clark (Richadson 55), Appleton (Stephens 40); Marshall, Clarkson; Brantingham, Chaplin (Winter 21), Dodds (Thompson 53), Phillips, Hall-Lyon, Charlton, Cooper, Clarke (Wright 76).
Star Man: Matt Sturgess – A hard one to pick with every player having a good game. His four tries on the day though which all showcased how important it is to back breaks up ultimately meant he was the star man of the afternoon.
Game Breaking Moment: A case of take your pick really! But Matt Sturgess had an excellent opening 20 minutes, and his third try where Tom Grimes produced the lovely break and chip kick over to put Fylde 26 – 0 up almost meant the result was signed, sealed and delivered there and then.
Attendance: 926
