Rotherham Titans 34 v Fylde 19: match report by Simon Taylor
[Photo courtesy of Dr Gareth Lyons]
Fylde fell to their third straight defeat of an already tough campaign as they lost out to second placed Rotherham in glorious sunshine on the Yorkshire Riviera on Saturday. A torrid first 32 minutes when Fylde could barely exit their own half saw the unbeaten hosts build up a 21-point lead. Fylde wrestled their way back into the game with a score just on the half time hooter, competed manfully in the second half to give themselves a chance of taking at least 2 bonus points from the game, only to concede a penalty try with the last move of the match, which finally gave the Titans their try bonus point.
Road closures around the ground made it hard work finding a way into the playing arena, and Fylde found it just as hard to get into the game, as the Titans started with a bang. They were celebrating the centenary of their first ever match played in 1923, and roared on by an always vociferous home support, they shot out of the traps. They kicked off, regained possession early and kept it through multiple phases. To say they are a big team is an understatement, their huge pack matched by almost as big a big set of lads in the backs. Coach Gary Pearce achieved promotion from this division with Hull two seasons ago, and it is clear Rotherham have brought him in to repeat the formula that proved so effective back then. They have some very good players who couldn’t even make it into the matchday squad, showing their strength in depth. Muscular carries battered the line until their veteran warhorse, second row Matt Challinor, barged his way over from close range. Lloyd Hayes converted, and the home team were 7-0 up after just 2 minutes.
Disaster then followed, as 2 minutes later Fylde lost their own talismanic veteran, Dave Fairbrother, to injury. Having rested a troublesome back the week before, a heavy collision saw Fairbrother helped from the pitch, and later to A&E, with an obviously extremely uncomfortable flare up of the problem. It is to be hoped the problem is not as bad as it looked, as Fairbrother is a galvanising force in the Fylde pack, and always sorely missed when not taking the battle to the opposition. With Harlan Corrie still unavailable and no natural back row replacement on the pine, the always tenacious replacement hooker Sam Parker came on at wing forward with Toby Harrison moving to number eight.
The agony was collective rather than confined to Fairbrother, as Fylde fell further behind on 7 minutes. More powerful drives set up space out wide for powerful winger Tomasi Tanumi to crash over, and with Hayes converting Fylde were 14-0 down and somewhat shell-shocked. To their credit, Fylde fought hard to stem the relentless tide of heavy artillery, tackling like demons. They also tried to play their own game when they forced penalties, with their man of the match Ben Gould tapping and going, only for errors to stop their own flow. Even when they forced knock on errors Fylde were under pressure, with the heavy home pack forcing regular scrum penalties, allowing them to kick to touch and pin Fylde deep again.
The pressure told again on 32 minutes when skipper Zak Poole, who had a fine game, drove over as the last in a long line of battering rams. Hayes made it 3 from 3 conversions and Fylde were 21-0 in arrears. A big hit on the line from Matt Ashcroft, a standout performer, prevented the damage from being worse, and finally Fylde got enough ball to raise the tempo and stress the home defence. They kept the ball, stretched Rotherham side to side and, after a lovely midfield burst by skipper Ben Gregory, and further good work by Tane Bentley, winger Adam Lanigan took the tacklers over the line with him to touch down on 40 minutes. Greg Smith couldn’t convert but Fylde could take a crumb of comfort into the break with them and re-group, at 21-5 down.
The second half saw the Fylde pack work tirelessly to secure a more equal share of possession and give their dangerous back line the chance to show their quality. Young prop Tye Raymont, only signed on dual registration last week from Sale Sharks academy, replaced Pete Altham and showed no nerves as he set about his work in the trenches. The game became much more even, and Fylde were able to make some genuine forays into the home ranks. Rotherham’s defence held firm, and despite Fylde forcing a couple of scrum penalties of their own, they were still conceding them as well, meaning Rotherham’s defence could initially resist being stressed long enough to be breached again.
Rotherham, finding it much harder against the resolute Fylde defence, became more pragmatic in their approach, looking to secure the win first, and the bonus point later if the chance allowed it. Hayes kicked a penalty on 56 minutes to stretch the lead to 24-5 before Fylde raised their level to fight back again, helped by a yellow card to the home team. Referee Henry Pearson, in his first full season at this level, had a fine game, showing composure and good game control in a highly physical encounter. There had been several high tackle penalties, with teams still struggling to adapt to the new tackle height laws, and on 61 minutes there was one too many, with Rotherham replacement Callum Bustin sent to the naughty step for 10 minutes. Fylde kicked for touch, replacement lock Matt Garrod secured quality lineout ball, and Fylde maintained possession and created space for Jordan Dorrington to go over wide left and improve the angle. Smith converted, and Fylde were back to 24-12.
Hayes nudged the Titans 27-12 ahead with another penalty kick on 70 minutes but still Fylde would not lie down. They forced penalties as Rotherham’s discipline dipped and gave the Titans a taste of their own medicine with some strong forward carries themselves. On 75 minutes skipper Ben Gregory was held up just short but scrum half Will Wooton, on for Ben Gould, fed quick ball to his Sharks academy teammate Tye Raymont, who touched down for a debut try. Smith converted and with 5 minutes left, Fylde were just 8 points adrift at 27-19, which was some effort after the travails of the opening half hour.
Fylde knew one more piece of sustained pressure would give them a shot at a fourth try, which would at least give them both a try bonus point, and a losing bonus point to take back across the M62. However, Rotherham did not want their centenary celebrations to be disrupted. They forced a Fylde knock on at the re-start, then a scrum penalty, and kicked to touch. The catch and drive resulted in another penalty, which was once more kicked to touch. The inevitable catch and drive was rumbling ominously onwards when it was hauled down illegally, the penalty try was given and there was no time to restart. Rotherham could breathe a sigh of relief at securing their try bonus point right at the death and ran out 34-19 winners.
Fylde rarely lose 3 games in a row and slipped from fourth to eighth in the table with this reverse. There were, however, many positives in this performance, more so than the previous two weeks. Although those narrow 1-point defeats had resulted in 3 combined bonus points and Fylde got nothing out of this latest defeat, the character shown in coming back from 21-0 down was admirable. There was no lack of effort, but Fylde will want to avoid having a first half hour like this again, allowing any team to build a 21-0 lead, let alone a top two team, away from home, digs a pretty deep hole to try to get out of.
Fylde will lick their wounds and look to bounce back while they wait for some of their injured roster to return. Next up is Tynedale at home next Saturday, who secured their first win of the season at the weekend. With two strong teams relegated into the league, and promoted Billingham and Lymm proving highly competitive, every win will be hard earned in National 2 North this season.
Joint Head Coach Chris Briers said: “We had a bad start and Rotherham punished us with two early tries. We had very limited possession and the Titans have some very big and powerful runners and they made this count. The 2nd half was a different story as we achieved a decent measure of possession and we played some good positive rugby. The last 40 minutes saw two well competing teams in a much more even contest, and in patches we were on top and the final score didn’t reflect that due to a last minute penalty try. But the poor start in the opening exchanges and a 14-0 deficit by the 5th minute made it a very long way back.”
Click here for video coverage of Fylde’s three tries.
Teams:
Fylde: S. Carleton, Turner, J. Dorrington, T. Carleton, Lanigan, Smith, Gould (Wooton), Bowker (Brooks), Gregory (Captain), Altham (Raymont), Hall-Lyon, Ashcroft, Bentley (Garrod), Harrison, Fairbrother (Parker)
Rotherham: Townend, Render, Hayes, Dunne (Bustin), Tanumi, Milner, Bruzulier, Capps (Kivalu), Bergmanas (Cole), Denman (Ward), Challinor, Smith (Okafor), Kay, Cowen, Poole (c)