Fylde 62 Sheffield Tigers 17: report by Elliot Burrow
There’s a saying that lightning doesn’t strike twice but for home scrum-half Matt Sturgess it well and truly did, as he scored his second hat-trick in as many weeks to send Fylde on their way to another comfortable home win.
It was another sunny day at the Woodlands, with a breeze coming in off the coastline, as Fylde played at home for the second consecutive week, with Sheffield Tigers being the visitors this time around.
A ‘high scoring game’ sums up last week’s performance against Blaydon perfectly, with Sturgess the pick of the scorers with his four tries as they ran in 79 points. However, defensively they weren’t as solid, letting in 31 points, with Blaydon managing to come away with a deserved bonus point.
They made two changes to the team that ran out comfortable winners last week. Scott Rawlings returned from suspension to replace Ben Turner, allowing Tom Carleton to slot back into his full-back role in the process, while Harlan Corrie switched places with Ben O’Ryan to start at flanker.
Adam Lanigan was in line to make his 50th appearance for the club, after progressing straight through the junior ranks to senior level, and Olli Parkinson had a new supporter at the game with his son, who was only born on Friday, in attendance.
Earlier on in the season when these two sides met at Sheffield, Tom Carleton scored four tries, as Fylde picked up all five points with a 43 – 12 win. The visitors had been in a mixed run of form since then, sitting in 10th position in the league table, picking up 10 wins and 11 defeats so far in the campaign.
A good performance at home last time out though saw them beat Loughborough 20 – 12, and despite their squad being ravaged by injures, only being able to name four players on the bench, they still had the ability and potential to make it anything but a straight forward afternoon for Fylde.
Sheffield got the game under way with a short kick-off, which Charlie Partington collected, and put Fylde on the front foot straight away with a strong drive. Tom Carleton then sliced open the Sheffield defence from inside his own half, before being tackled 15 metres short of the try line and winning a penalty.
Tom Forster couldn’t find his way over from a quick tap, but the ball eventually found its way out to Scott Rawlings, who barged his way over in the right corner to make Fylde’s early pressure count.
Greg Smith was tasked with a tricky conversion from the touchline, which he missed, but he was handed another chance moments later, when Carleton waltzed his way through the Tigers defensive line again, where he drew in the full-back and sent Tom Grimes in to score. Smith missed the conversion attempt from the opposite touchline this time, but Fylde led 10 – 0 with only three minutes gone.
Sheffield finally managed to get their hands on the ball and James Broadley slotted over a penalty conversion to get them on the scoreboard, but that only seemed to wake Fylde back up again.
All of Matt Sturgess’ tries last week came from excellent support play, and he clearly was continuing where he left off as he showed great acceleration from a quick tap to surprise the visitors by bursting through the defence and scoring under the posts.
Smith converted, and Fylde were back rolling again now, another slick passing move saw Henry Hadfield race clear before he drew in the full-back and sent in the supporting Carleton for his first try of the afternoon.
Rawlings had been a big miss for Fylde in recent weeks, but he was back in the team and showcasing why he was so important to the side, with his good link up play with Smith and quick hands sending skipper Ben Gregory through a gap to score.
Smith converted, and Carleton then produced another trademark break of his and set up Sturgess for his second try of the game leaving Smith with an easy conversion to slot over and send Fylde in with a 38 -3 lead at the interval.
Fylde kicked the game back off for the second-half and won the ball back straight away with a short kick, which saw Harlan Corrie leap the highest and collect. They shifted the ball out to the left, where Tom Forster passed back on his inside to the supporting Matt Sturgess, who raced over and completed his hat-trick, his second in as many games.
Sheffield were starting to see more of the ball again, and a strong run from Connor Scott saw him shrug off the tackler to touch down and score.
Broadley converted, but Fylde hit straight back through a Carleton score, before they lost Tom Forster to the sin bin after a suspected high tackle.
In the middle of all the action, Adam Lanigan had come on for his 50th appearance in a Fylde first team shirt, an excellent achievement and the applause he received was well deserved.
Sheffield meanwhile took advantage of the extra man when they produced a brilliant cross kick out to the left, where Sam Down collected and put down, with a Broadley conversion making it Fylde 50 – 17 Sheffield.
Greg Smith clearly didn’t want to be out done, and produced a delightful little chip kick over the Sheffield defence, where Ben Gregory raced onto the ball and sprinted away to score.
Smith converted, and when it appeared as though we had seen all the action for the afternoon, out of nowhere prop Matt Ashcroft found himself with nothing but space in front of him and ball in hand, and he ran 40 metres to go over for the final try of the game and make it Fylde 62 – 17 Sheffield.
The conversion was missed, but Fylde had picked up another home win, and secured maximum points which kept them in the hunt at the top end of the table.
They now face a week off before an away trip to Hull Ionians, and return home on April 2nd to take on Luctonians.
Click here for Chris Farrow’s 170 action photos.
Teams
Fylde: 15 Carleton; 14 Hadfield, 13 Forster, 12 Rawlings, 11 Grimes: 10 Smith, 9 Sturgess (Lanigan 51); 1 Kyle-Clay (Higgins 35), 2 Gregory (Kyle-Clay 65), 3 Ashcroft (Bowker 35, Ashcroft 69), 4 Parkinson (Blake 40), 5 Garrod, 6 Corrie, 7 Partington, 8 Fairbrother (O’Ryan 51).
Sheffield: Keetley, Lau, Church, Scott, Floyd, Broadley, Down, Bennett, Archer, Cone, Newman, Orton, Clark, Baldry, Hughes.
Replacements: Howieson, Meek, Calladine, Taylor.
Star Man: Tom Carleton – he cut through the Sheffield defence effortlessly at times, and deservedly got two tries of his own to round of a brilliant all round performance.
Game breaking moment: Another week, another hat-trick for Matt Sturgess, and his first try of the game from a quick penalty tap, where he showed great acceleration to score and restore Fylde’s early control of the first-half, stopped any chances of a possible Sheffield comeback before it could even get up and running.
Attendance: 473