When asked ahead of KO about the prospect of his unbeaten Fylde Hawks team facing one of the leading teams, Sedgley Park 2nds, in the NOWIRUL Premiership, Coach Steve Gough was ultra relaxed. “One of the important characteristics of this young team is that, to a great extent, they manage themselves. When things go wrong on the field they work out how to fix the situation. I just wander about watching them perform!”
Goughie is a very experienced and knowledgeable coach and his words echoed in this reporter’s head when the Hawks had the worst of the first 40 minutes and were 7-12 down to Sedgley at half-time. Could they turn things around? The conclusive answer was posted by the squad as they completely dominated the last 40 minutes and ran up 31 unanswered points to ease home by 38-12.
Once the Hawks forwards had established parity and then dominance of the Sedge eight, the home backs took over. Prompted throughout from their composed fly-half, Francisco Pissarra, who had been appointed as skipper ahead of the game, they hardly allowed their opponents any space in their half of the pitch and ran clever lines to exploit the width of the big Woodlands pitch.
The game started in a rather different fashion when, after some early midfield chess, Sedgley took the lead with an unconverted try. A few minutes later the Hawks struck back when centre Jack King drove over for their opening try, converted by Pissarro. 7-5. Sedg retaliated in the 25th minute, this time with a converted try. 7-12 and that’s how it stayed until half-time. The visitors, led by the very experienced fly-half Warren Seals, shaded both possession and territory and deserved their lead.
In the 49th minute, the Hawks drew level through one of their star performers in this early season, Kyle Macauley, scored an excellent unconverted try. On 54 minutes it was one of the few more experienced heads in the Hawks shirts, Gregor Aitkin, who drove over the try line to put his side ahead for the first time, converted by Pissarro (19-12).
The young Portuguese playmaker was by this stage mixing up his running and kicking game in an impressive way including a couple of delightful and inch perfect chips to the far touchlines, one of which was gathered by Charlie Cadley for a fine try. Centre Owen Fisher made a number of muscular midfield breaks which contributed to the Hawks ‘front foot’ emphasis in the 2nd half.
On 69 minutes, another of the very impressive Hawks local youngsters, Dan Slawson, scored a deserved try wide out, this time unconverted by Francisco Pissarro, pushing up his side’s lead to 31-12. The icing on the cake was the final last minute try by one of the hard working pack, Rob King, who battered his way over the line, and converted by Pissarro. 38-12 FT.
Francisco Pissarra, when asked about his team’s performance, said: “We were very similar to the last game at Lymm. We were rather casual and didn’t focus sufficiently early on. We made errors and didn’t get our attacking game going. The forwards battled hard and the defence was sound. I got the players together and we sorted out our tactics. The 2nd half was very different as we raised our game. All credit to the whole squad for this performance and the previous matches which sees us 7 wins out of 7.
“I’m very much enjoying my time at the Club and skippering today was a great honour. Everyone has been very welcoming. My family is following my time here – my father Pedro has been involved with Portuguese rugby as a player and administrator for many years. Rugby is in our family DNA!”
FYLDE HAWKS: 1. King R, 2. Kincart R, 3. Kenyon T, 4. Smith C, 5. Senior M, 6. Livesey M (Pack Leader), 7. Horan R, 8. McIntyre C; 9. Gould B, 10. Pissarra F (c); 11. Cadley C, 12. King J, 13. Fisher O, 14. Macauley K; 15. Slawson D.
16. Railton C, 17. Aitken G, 18. Kincart L, 19. McConnell L.