Fylde v Barking - Report

Here is my report from the match between Fylde and Barking in National League One, as it appeared in The Rugby Paper on Sunday 9 October 2011. It was the feature match of the week for National League one in TRP, so was a 520 word piece. The final result wasn't one that could have been predicted, given the start to the season for each club.

Fylde 18 Barking 31

National League One
Saturday 8 October 2011

Barking deservedly took the spoils in this contest at Woodlands having taken the game to Fylde from the very first minute of the match.

After being a man down for the majority of the match, Barking’s Martin Jones was delighted with the overall performance by his team afterwards: “On a run of five losses where we could have won the game, we have managed to turn our defence around in two weeks, stop conceding soft points, and we knew that today against Fylde, they were going to run the ball so we worked hard on our midfield defence” he said.

“This is a new bunch of lads, we lost 24 players after last year, and it was going to take time to blend. It was our target to start well and stay in front, and we managed to do it”

The match started with Fylde on the back-foot, the Barking pack chasing down every ball carrier. This led to early penalties, and the visitors taking a 6-0 lead almost before Fylde had managed to enter the visitors’ half.

The game entered a period of play where physicality came to the fore, with yellow cards shown to Fylde’s Gareth Rawlings, and Barking’s Sean Jones, in separate incidents. 

The first try of the contest went to Barking, Mike Waywell losing possession after a tackle in the midfield, and the visitors were able to work the ball wide to Will Nelson, who passed inside to Charles Broughton, putting down in the corner, Chris Ashwin adding the extras.

Fylde started to come into the game, working the ball well through the phases inside the Barking 22, until possession was lost from a needless handling error.

It was during this period of pressure on the Barking defence that the red card came, Francis Ambrose sent off for a dangerous tackle on Cameron Thompson in the 37^th minute. It was with the resultant penalty that Steve Collins reduced the arrears, before Sam Beaumont touched down from a driving maul, with Collins adding the conversion to go in level at the break.

Fylde took the lead after 60 minutes, Royle benefitting from a cross-field chip by Richard Kenyon, touching down in the corner.

Barking however, showed an extra commitment to make up for being a man down, and came back with a try, Marcus Burcham given the nod by the referee, after chasing a grubber that had been knocked into his path by Kenyon on the wing.

Uncontested scrums came into play, as a result of injuries, and the first half red card, as did several  minutes of extra time played.

The nail in Fylde’s coffin came with a try five minutes from time by Joe Hardy, bursting through a static defensive line, with Ashwin converting.

Fylde’s Mark Nelson admitted afterwards that: “We got what we deserved from the game really, which was nothing. We just have to move on to our next fixture at Cambridge”

Speaking about the commitment shown by his Barking side, Jones added: “We asked for an extra 25% from the 14 men that we had on the field, they committed to that at half-time, and we got the result”

Scorers:
Fylde

Tries: Beaumont 39, Royle 60

Conversions: Collins 40

Penalty Goals: Collins 25 37

Barking

Tries: Broughton 25, Burcham 61, Hardy 80+1

Conversions: Ashwin 25 80+2

Penalty Goals: Ashwin 1 3 66 80+8

Half-time: 13-13
Star Man: Marcus Burcham (Barking)
Referee: Andrew Jackson
Attendance: 624

Teams:

Fylde: Kenyon, Royle, S Briers, Waywell (Binham 45), Brennand, Collins, Depledge (Wallwork 69), Griffiths (Livesey 62) (Wells 80), Loney, Altham (Lavelle 47), Arnold, Ferguson, Rawlings, Thompson, S Beaumont

Barking: Nelson (C Jones 72), Broughton, Henderson, Burcham, Flannery, Ashwin, Parker, Ambrose, Bloomberg, Kavanagh, Burns, Smith, Wood (Sinfield 59), Reynolds (Ambrose 26), Dwyer (S Jones 40+1) (Hardy 69)