Fylde play Fleetwood mid week under lights

A rare midweek treat was served up for supporters of local Colts rugby as Fleetwood made the short journey down the coast to the floodlit Woodlands, home of local rivals Fylde.

Both clubs fielded strong squads as Fylde looked to avenge their defeat earlier in the season. In the first ¼ both sides competed well. Unfortunately for Fylde Hooker Tom Burtonwood had to leave the field due to a knee injury. Within the first few minutes. Fleetwood ignored the first bite of the cherry as Tom Evans skewed his penalty kick wide. A penalty seconds later ensured Fylde had the lead as their 10 made no mistake with his kick. However from a scrum on Fylde’s 22 Scrum Half James Evans put a perfect pass into fellow half back Tom Evans and he sidestepped first his opposite number and then the fullback to score the first try of the game by the posts. He made no mistake this time as he bisected the goal. Fylde quickly came back into contention as again Fleet’ were penalised for a ruck infringement and the resultant kick sailed through. Fylde then took the lead through the impressive Sam Russell as he first swatted away the attentions of Fly Half Evans on halfway and then accelerated into and ran through the tackle of Fullback Steve Preston to score. The Fleetwood scrum dominant throughout especially in the front row union of Jamie Moran, Ben Ruddlesdin and Jack Foden were excellent throughout. From another set piece Fleetwood hit back from the home 22 as a they won their own scrum ball and the 2 Evans’s combined to put flying Centre Kris Phillips into space as he split the Fylde defence to score before half time. 12-11 to Fleet’.

Enforced changes were made at halftime due to a few knocks and this did upset the shape of Fleet’ at the start of the half. Again Russell caused the damage as he surged through at least 2 soft tackles from half way before offloading to his teammate to score. However the visitors were relishing the contest and quick thing from James Evans enabled him to get on the score sheet as the ball popped out of as scrum on the Fylde 5m line and he reacted quicker than the Home 9 to ground the ball. Tom Evans again converted 19-18 to the good.

A defensive clearance by Evans caused panic on the Fylde wing as Phil Walters wrapped up the Fylde ball receiver and assisted by Phillips, bundled him into touch. A small amount of ‘handbags’ followed but the Fylde player was somewhat harshly shown a red card.

Fleet’ started to crank up the pressure with the long ball being used at every opportunity. From a penalty kick Evans found touch just inside the Fylde Half. The line out ball was won superbly by Dale Thompson and the ball quickly found it’s way to Phillips who’s long weighted pass missed out 2 players to hit the waiting hands of Flanker Danny Maher who did not even break stride to receive the ball. Now with a 2 on 1 situation Maher drew the last defender and eventually passed left to Walters for him to score. Fylde had not finished though and pressed again through Russell but were repelled by a determined Fleetwood defence. Final score 24-18.

Fleetwood Squad: Benson, Birks, Cameron, J. Evans, T Evans, Foden, Howe, Jackson, MacDonald-Hall, Maher, Moran, Morgan, Nickson, Phillips, Preston, Railton, Riley, Ruddlesdin, Thompson, Turner, Walters, Worthington.
League Admin 02/26/2010