Stourbridge 37 v Fylde 33: report by Simon Taylor
Despite a fast start and a spirited second half fightback Fylde narrowly lost out in an excellent game of rugby between two well matched teams. They did bring back two losing bonus points that they very much deserved, and the whole squad and coaching team should be proud of their efforts in a high quality and hard-fought game that looked at one point like it might get away from them.
At start of play Fylde sat one point behind Stourbridge in the league table as fourth took on fifth, a battle between the top two point-scoring teams in the league, both closing in on 1,000 points for the season. This boded well for a high-scoring end to end affair and so it proved, with as little to separate the two teams at the end of a breathless 80 minutes as there had been at the beginning. The contrasting styles made for a fascinating arm-wrestle as each team had their periods of supremacy and periods when they had to scramble like mad and defend stoutly.
A large crowd included a vociferous Fylde contingent making a weekend of it away including availing themselves of the excellent pre-match lunch offering at the impressive Stourton Park. Fylde dominated the opening exchanges, and after only 3 minutes Scott Rawlings did what he does best, freeing his arms in the tackle to offload to Tom Forster in space. Forster cantered in from 30 yards out and Greg Smith converted for an early 7-0 lead. Stourbridge then lost a man to the sin-bin as centre Ciaran Moor was yellow carded for a dangerous clear-out on Dave Fairbrother, given that Fairbrother ended up landing on his head there was an argument the card should have been a different colour.
Stourbridge woke themselves up and forced a few penalties and pressure in the Fylde 22, which was relieved by a fine turnover penalty win at the breakdown by Matt Ashcroft. Smith’s kick took play deep into Stourbridge territory and the home team incurred a second yellow card on 11 minutes when Joe Heatley took out a Fylde supporting player without the ball. Fylde immediately took advantage as Fairbrother drove through from the ruck, offloading to the ever-willing support runner Matt Sturgess for the try near the posts, goaled again by Smith. Fylde were now 14-0 up and a somewhat shell-shocked Stourbridge were down to 13 men temporarily.
Fylde looked to drive home their numerical advantage while they had it. Straight from the kick off the ball was spun wide with Forster putting Tom Carleton in space as he raced for the corner. The covering defence was desperate, and nobody knew whether Carleton had got the ball down cleanly before being bundled into touch. The officials conferred and ruled that he hadn’t, Stour breathing a sigh of relief.
Stour held on as their sin bins were reversed and wisely decided their best option was to monopolise possession and bring their power game into play, utilising their huge ball carriers to tire and stretch the Fylde defence and deny the Fylde fliers ball to run with. They ground out the penalties to the point where the referee’s patience ran out and Fairbrother was yellow carded on 24 minutes, the dividend was immediate as full back Rhys Pritchard went over in the right corner. Michael Heaney’s conversion made it 14-7 and Stour had not only stemmed the tide but started to turn it in their favour. 5 minutes later a back line move from a line out near the halfway put Heaney in acres of space for a try, he failed to convert it, but Stour were now well and truly back in the contest at 14-12 down.
The Fylde coaches recognised that Stour were in the ascendancy and made early changes in the front row to bolster the front-line defences against Stour’s heavier artillery. Sam Kyle-Clay and Matt Ashcroft took a well earnt breather and were replaced by Zach Barrow and former skipper and club stalwart Adam Lewis, the latter having manfully answered the call to arms once again with Corey Bowker having moved on to new pastures in the week due to an offer he couldn’t refuse. Fylde will watch his future progress with interest and wish him all the best, a fine young prospect who will be missed.
Despite the changes Fylde found the Stour juggernaut once in motion difficult to negate. Three more penalties gave Stour territory and possession, and Fylde were made to pay right on half time as winger Matthew Mosely finished off a set move from a 5-yard scrum for an unconverted try. Stour had weathered the early storm to take a 17-14 lead into the sheds at the break.
Fylde re-grouped at the break, realising that the challenge was to cope with Stour’s power game when not in possession and create enough possession of their own to stretch the larger home pack so they could tire them out and create gaps. Their first reward came on 45 minutes when they took play one way then the other at speed and fast hands created just enough space for Tom Grimes to squeeze in the corner and put them back ahead at 19-17. The lead didn’t last long, however, as a Stour catch and drive line-out was deemed to have been collapsed illegally on 52 minutes and the penalty try meant Fylde were behind again 24-19, and a man short as Lewis was sent to the sin bin. At the re-start the referee took offence to something that was said and awarded Stour a penalty, also marching Fylde a further ten yards.
Stour hammered home their man advantage mercilessly. In the space of 5 minutes their direct running was too powerful and their ball recycling too quick to deal with, which meant Fylde’s defensive structure lost its shape and effectiveness. Space on the left was exploited to put first Heaney in for his second try and then the Stour Express try-scoring machine Dan Rundle in for one of his easier tries. Both conversions were missed but Fylde were now 34-19 down after 56 minutes and the potential for a blow-out in the last quarter was a real possibility. Fylde were hampered by Tom Carleton leaving the field to be replaced by young Alex Clayton with skipper Ben Gregory also leaving the fray, Sam Kyle-Clay once again showing his versatility as he moved from prop to hooker.
To their immense credit Fylde to a man gathered up every ounce of character and fighting spirit and launched a comeback in the face of adversity. The pack fought hard to get possession and Fylde took the game to Stour in true Fylde fashion, flinging the ball around with abandon. A break from deep saw Fairbrother and Grimes make inroads before Sturgess was hauled down just short of the line, resulting in a penalty and a yellow card for Stour’s Fred Morgan. Patient re-cycling saw Tom Grimes through a gap for Fylde’s fourth try and Smith’s conversion saw them back to 34-26 down on 62 minutes.
Stour sought to pin Fylde in their own half, but Fylde now had their dander up. Great exit play forced a penalty as Stour scrambled in defence. This was kicked to touch, the catch and drive rumbled forward, and as Stour defenders joined the maul the ball was spun wide at just the right time, with Scott Rawlings on the overlap touching down close to the posts. Smith converted, and Fylde were now back to within a point of the hosts at 34-33 down with 10 minutes left to try and snatch what had seemed an unlikely win.
Rawlings was replaced by Adam Lanigan, once again asked to play out of position, showing he is up to the task when asked to do so. Fylde continued to chuck the ball around and break up Stour’s attempts to keep it a structured and tight game. End to end stuff led to a Stour penalty which was kicked on 72 minutes to make it 37-33 but Fylde knew a try would still give them the win. Alex Clayton has had to come on at difficult times in the games he has featured in so far but shown no reluctance and plenty of promise, and his fine break put Fylde on the front foot again before Stour forced a turnover and cleared their lines. A tremendous shove against the heavier pack gave Fylde a rare scrum penalty on 78 minutes and the tap and go saw them create pressure again until a huge hit in the tackle on Fairbrother forced a knock-on and Stour cleared again to Fylde’s 22. The last line out throw was deemed not straight, a free-kick was awarded to Stour at the resulting scrum and with the clock in the red they were happy to kick the ball out, bring a titanic hammer and tongs contest to an end.
Defeats are never easy to take but the manner of the performance in this one made it much easier to do so. Fylde won the home fixture by 5 points and Stourbridge this one by 4. This was a fine advert for National 2 North rugby, it is a shame that the league re-structure means these two teams will not meet again for the foreseeable future. The whole Fylde squad performed extremely well on the day with Zach Barrow deserving a call-out for some powerful ball-carrying when he came off the bench. Stourbridge quite rightly named Dave Fairbrother the Fylde man of the match, even if it does sound like a broken record having to report that, Fairy shows no signs of losing one inch of his competitive edge as the seasons tick by.
Coach Chris Briers’s comments were: “We started well, but we know you can’t bank on an early lead and expect it to go the same way for the full game. Stour are a good team, and we knew they would come at us at some point. We had our ups and downs and unfortunately during our down spells they managed to get their scores. Our heads could have gone down, and they could have run away with it, but we showed tremendous bottle, battled back and were very close to nicking it in the end. Result wise, it wasn’t to be on the day, but we can take a lot from that performance.”
Fylde remain in fifth spot, with 3 games left they are 1 league point short of 100 and need 65 points to hit 1,000 points scored. With Huddersfield causing an upset with a fine win over second placed Rotherham, leaders Hull are now 9 points clear and would have to slip up more than once to be denied the title. Fylde will be doing their best to engineer one of those slip-ups and inflict only a third defeat of the season on the Humbersiders when they visit The Woodlands next week.
Teams:
Fylde: Carleton (Clayton), Turner, Forster, Rawlings (Lanigan), Grimes, Smith, Sturgess, Kyle-Clay (Barrow), Gregory (c), Ashcroft (Lewis), Parkinson, Garrod, O’Ryan (Blake), Corrie, Fairbrother
Stourbridge: Pritchard (Morgan), Moseley, Heatley, Moore, Rundle, Penn, Heaney, George (Thorp), Lea, Thorne (McLeod), Bell, Murphy (Turrisi), Mifsud, Theobald-Thomas (Perks), Mukurati
