Sale FC 34 Fylde 14
National Two (North) Fylde travelled to National One high flyers Sale FC for their final pre-season competitive preparation ahead of the start of the new 2022-23 season on 3rd September. Sale were taking this match very seriously and fielded a strong and powerful line-up.
Fylde’s top points scorers last season, fullback Tom Carleton and fly-half Greg Smith, were both unavailable and an infected grazed leg led to winger Tom Grimes’ late withdrawal. This gave opportunities to Jordan Dorrington, returning to the Club after five years away, and promising young talents Ben Turner and Alex Clayton.
Fylde started strongly and for the first half hour were on top and posed lots of attacking threats to the Sale squad. Sadly, they weren’t able to convert chances into points. The home side eventually broke through in the 27th minute when their forwards went through numerous phases near the Fylde line before cross-codes lock Samir Tahraoui drove over to get the touch down. Fly-half James Robins added the conversion for a 7-0 lead.
Five minutes later Sale extended their lead as vastly experienced backs, Tom Brady and centre Fergus Mulchrone, combined to create space for winger Nev Edwards who evaded two defenders to score.
The Fylde pack worked hard to maintain reasonable parity against a very big Sale pack. They held their own in the scrummages and, after a few early problems in the lineout, retained most of their own ball subsequently.
Just on half-time, a piece of opportunism from strong running back Sammi Adu saw him pick up a loose ball near halfway and sprint clear to score. The score was Sale 17 Fylde 0 at the break.
Former Sale FC player Matt Sturgess got on the wrong side of referee Ben Rayner in the 49th minute and was sinbinned for 10 minutes. Fylde missed him as Sale exploited their extra man and scored two tries whilst he was off the field. In the 51st minute, Tom Brady made the break and set up powerful winger Nev Edwards to snatch his 2nd try of the game.
Four minutes later, Edwards turned from scorer to provider as, from some concerted Sale backs handling, he threw a long pass to fly-half Robins who scored with ease.
Although 29-0 down, Fylde heads didn’t drop and they attacked down the left in the 66th minute. A clever Sturgess chip over the Sale defence led to a scramble in the home side’s goal area before flanker Harlan Corrie pounced on the loose ball to secure the try. Clayton converted to reduce the deficit. An appreciative Fylde supporter yelled out advice “play your percentages!” in response.
Sale were as committed as Fylde to attacking, running rugby and in the 71st minute notched their 6th try when scrum-half Matt Bradley changed the direction of an attack and put Sammi Adu in for his second try of the afternoon.
Once again, Fylde hit back and in the 79th minute Matt Sturgess broke through the heart of the Sale defence and sprinted 40m to score under the posts. Alex Clayton’s conversion (34-14) wrapped up a game that was a useful runout for both squads.
One or two Fylde players picked up knocks in a very physical contest but the coaches will be hoping that the intervening two weeks will allow them to select a first choice line-up for the visit of Chester to the Woodlands for their opening game of the National Two season on 3rd Sept.
“It was a good effort by all” said joint head coach Chris Briers summarising his team’s performance.
[Photographs by Gareth Lyons, reproduced here with his permission. Click here for his excellent album of pics]
Fly-half Alex Clayton clears to touch.
Jordan Dorrington trying to get the ball away from the tackle as Sam Stott trips over Nev Edwards!