Fylde is delighted to welcome Lancashire friends and rivals Blackburn RUFC to the Woodlands on Saturday (ko 15.00) in the second of two pre-season run-outs ahead of the start of the National League 2 (North) season which begins on 7th September. This will be an exciting hors d’oeuvre to the 2024-25 campaign and entry is free. Normal hospitality provision will be in place and the Club hopes for a healthy crowd for the fixture. Blackburn lost 10-35 to Preston Grasshoppers a week ago.
Blackburn RUFC has a much longer history than Fylde, being formed in 1877 and having a continuous playing record of 147 years. It is one of the leading clubs in Regional One North West, one of six parallel regional divisions at level 5 in the RFU league hierarchy. They have been competing towards the top of the division in recent seasons and have gone close to earning promotion on a few occasions in parallel with local rivals Rossendale. Both have been edged out in the last four seasons by Harrogate (2019-20), Otley (2021-22), Lymm (2022-23) and most recently by Macclesfield (2023-24). They are very ambitious and have set their sights on National League status.
Blackburn have recruited a number of former Fylde players in recent years. Former skipper and now Head Coach is the former Fylde skipper, scrum-half Greg Nicholls. Others include hooker Tom Burtonwood who, after a number of seasons at Ramsgreave Drive, has moved off to pastures new, props Adam Joyner, Ben Corless, flanker Jamie Brooks and lock Conner Scrivens, wingers Jake Foster and Sam Fisher, and centre Seb Pattinson. An especially interesting newcomer in 2024-25 is Fylde favourite Tom Carleton who will surely bring his particular magic to the Club in the coming season.
With this kind of quality, surely sooner rather than later, they will come out on top and move up to the National Leagues. Similar to the line-up v Rossendale a week ago, a number of Fylde’s new recruits are likely to be on view again. This should be another very keen test of the strength of the two squads.