What a game! Fylde supporters this season have had a great introduction to National League One, and I know that parking up on Ansdell Road every other week at 2 o'clock, I'm letting myself in for a great afternoon in front of me.
The fireworks during the second half of the game against Coventry in November saw a brand of rugby that the home support have savoured, but the second half turnaround yesterday, in my humble opinion, eclipsed that performance, and showed why sport at any level is just the purest form of entertainment.
Having lost both locks to injury the week before, Mark Nelson had to reshuffle his pack, bringing both Grant Ferguson and captain Sam Beaumont into the second row.
A real backs-to-the-wall performance during a first half which saw the visitors pile the pressure on the home side, it took Fylde a full ten minutes before they moved forward past their own 22 metre line.
Reporting for The Rugby Paper, this was another day where the rugby on view just couldn't be justified with a limit of 400 words, but here is what appeared in this morning's edition.
Fylde 48 Macclesfield 23
The final scoreline tells a different
story to the reality of this match, as Fylde blew away Macclesfield
in the final quarter with four tries to demolish the visitors’ hopes
of taking anything from the game.
Mark Nelson was delighted with his
side’s battling qualities throughout: “At half-time I told them
to just keep putting them under pressure, and they did exactly what
I asked of them” he said.
“The Fylde pack was magnificent today,
against a huge pack. We showed a lot of tenacity, commitment, at the
scrum, at the line-out, against much bigger opponents, and with those
drive over tries, it shows that we can score from anywhere.”
That defensive tenacity was in view
from the start, as Macclesfield were camped in the Fylde 22 for the
first nine minutes.
After weathering the early pressure,
it was Fylde who scored first, as Jonny Roddam emerged from the bottom
of a drive over after 13 minutes.
Macclesfield though, turned the screw,
and answered five minutes later, when Josh Fowles accepted a pass from
Ross Winney, running over on the left.
Winney added extra points from a neat
drop goal and penalty, before Jack Moorhouse extended their lead on
30 minutes, while Richard Kenyon pulled back the deficit just before
half-time, for a 16-10 lead to Macclesfield.
The visitors started the second period
as they had the first, with Moorhouse scoring on 43 minutes, but that
was to be their final score of the game, as the penalty count against
them started to mount.
Oli Brennand started the comeback on
49 minutes, before getting his second on 60. Roddam added his second,
after Tom Lavelle had thundered down the wing, to move Fylde into the
lead on 65 minutes.
What really saved the game for Fylde
however, was a try-saving tackle by Sam Beaumont on Fowles with ten
minutes to play.
That gave the home side the belief
that they could hold out, and so it proved, as Brennand got his hat-trick
minutes later, and set up Nick Royle to score the final try of the day.
Macclesfield’s Geoff Wappett thought
his side should have taken something from the game: “I thought we
got a bit silly or generous towards the end. I was disappointed at conceding
the final points, and that we didn’t come away with a four try bonus
point” he said.
For eagle-eyed readers out there, I failed to report on Evan Stewart's try-scoring contribution. He went over on 78 minutes, in another drive over the line against the club he left at the end of last season, and now sits in third place in the club's try-scoring list, with 16 tries. Not bad for a back rower!
Also missing was the detail of Macclesfield's Gavin Woods yellow-carded on 78 minutes for killing the ball in a ruck.
That result leaves Fylde level-pegging with Ealing in second placed, and a comfortable lead over fourth-placed Rosslyn Park.
With six games to go, Fylde now have only two home games left, against third-bottom Birmingham on 31 March, and Ealing on 21 April, with a visit to table-toppers Jersey on the last day of the season, 28 April.
Teams:
Fylde: Royle, Viney (Waywell
68), Briers C, Briers S, Brennand, Kenyon, Wallwork (Depledge 73), Livesey
(Griffiths 61), Roddam, Loney (Lavelle 49), Beaumont (McGinnis 80),
Ferguson, Stephenson, McGinnis, Stewart
Macclesfield: O’Regan, Stobart
(Hughes 57), Moorhouse, Davenport, Fowles, Winney, Eaton, Mantell, Moss
(Kent 77), Robinson (Woods 40), Marsh, Williams (Roddy 73), Owen, Parkinson
(Marsden 73), Barker
Scorers:
Fylde
Tries: Roddam 13 66, Kenyon 37, Brennand
49 60 75, Stewart 78, Royle 80
Conversions: Kenyon 49 66 75 80
Macclesfield
Tries: Fowles 18, Moorhouse 30 43
Conversions: Winney 43
Penalty Goals: Winney 27
Drop Goal: Winney 22
Penalties Conceded: 2 - 12
Lineouts Won: 10 - 5
Lineouts Lost: 4 - 0
Scrums Won: 3 - 10
Scrums Lost: 0 - 0
Sin Bins: 0 - 1
Half-time: 10 - 16
Star Man: Grant Ferguson (Fylde)
Referee: Wayne Fella
Attendance: 824
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