FYLDE 21-33 SHEFFIELD: match report by Will Judd
One last dance. For Fylde, their season was done. Fourth place, with neither gaining or losing a position being a possibility. Only pride was on the line for the boys on the coast, but that often brings out the toughest competitions. And Saturday was no different when Sheffield RUFC came to town, a side which narrowly missed out on a promotion would always be a danger and combined with the wounded Fylde lineup it was shaping up to be a tough day at the Woodlands.
Sheffield proved just how tough an opposition they would be after ten minutes. Their first visit to the Fylde 22 culminated in a lineout maul which rolled straight over the home side’s try-line. It was talisman no 8 Ryan Burrows who finished the unstoppable drive, a scary sign of things to come for Fylde.
Things got even worse only a few minutes later when David Fairbrother lost possession in the middle of the park, resulting in a superbly clinical counter-attack from Sheffield which ripped apart the Fylde defence. It was Scrum Half Elliot Fisher who completed the move and gave his side a 12 point lead after converting his own score.
Half an hour in and despite some hearty line defence from Fylde, pressure eventually made them snap when Burrows scored his second of the match. A brilliant end-to-end counter was the home side’s undoing and they were yet to score at 0-19 nil down.
If they wanted anything from the game Fylde needed to switch on, which they finally began to do towards the back end of the half. Two tries put Fylde back in contention before the break, the first coming in the form of lock Mike Walton stunning the Sheffield defence by tapping the penalty quickly and dodging the visitors’ defence to score under the posts.
Then, a simply brilliant try saving interception saw fullback Ben Turner run the length of the field to score a beautiful solo try. With both scores converted, Fylde were now only five points behind at 14-19 and tensions began to build.
But the tension did more than build. On the stroke of half time Fylde’s Will Hunt and Sheffield’s Cammy Catleugh were yellow carded by referee Peter Connor so each team started the second half with one man in the bin.
Fylde’s hard work at the end of the first half was erased rather quickly when play resumed as fullback Chris Hooper found a gap in the Fylde defence and raced between the posts and immediately restored his team’s cushion out in front. On the half hour mark Fylde were completely back to square one when Burrows finished his superb hattrick when far too many phases in the home side’s 22 lead to the defence opening up.
The remainder of the game was a rather slow event, largely thanks to Sheffield seeing out the game very effectively. The home side simply could not find a way to break through, until the 80th minute. Moments after a Felix Crapper yellow card for the Sheffield flanker, Fylde replacement and Kirkham Grammar School 6th former, Seb Krippner, made an instant impact, bouncing off tackles and showing elusive pace to score his first ever try for the senior team. Rather fittingly then, the try was drop-converted by the other replacement, Scott Rawlings, who retired last season and was only in the squad due to Fylde’s injury woes. Final score: Fylde 21 Sheffield RUFC 33.
But despite Fylde’s real full circle final try which combined young and old, they had fallen short of the end goal. Perhaps a fitting end then to their season which just fell short of a real promotion push, but had many positives and memorable results. The future is bright at The Woodlands. Although the sun has set on Fylde with a loss, the dawn of next season is ever more exciting.
15 Turner; 14 Lanigan (Krippner 52), 13 Clayton (Gaughan 78), 12 Forster (Rawlings 52), 11 Smith (Lanigan 72); 10 Hunt, 9 Gaughan (Gould 57); 1 Bowker (Rudkin 40), 2 Williamson (Forster 72), 3 Altham, 4 Walton (Dorrington 66), 5 Morgan, 6 Harrison, 7 Dorrington B (Davis 29, Bowker 66), 8 Fairbrother.
15 Hooper; 14 Catleugh, 13 Drennan, 12 Castledine, 11 Dawson (Flint 64); 10 Posa, 9 Fisher (Taylor 66); 1 Whitney (Reid 52), 2 Campbell, 3 Hicklin (Rogers 52), 4 Crapper A, 5 Thorpe (Lonsdale 25), 6 Fawdry, 7 Crapper F, 8 Burrows.
