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Fylde miss their goals but achieve target
Fylde 38, Hull Ionians 14 FYLDE registered a routine win in their penultimate home fixture of the season – but it could have been much, much more if their collective kicking -boots had not got lost somewhere in transit.
Fylde ran in seven tries, but all of them went unconverted; otherwise the margin of victory would have been overwhelming.
The only successful kick out of nine home attempts was a Tom Albinson penalty. Fylde tried three other kickers – Richard Kenyon, Martin Wallwork and Craig Aikman – but the touch-judges' flags always stayed at half-mast.
Not that it was in any way crucial as Fylde demonstrated their try-scoring potential, though this was a disjointed performance at times and they lost their way somewhat in a 15-minute spell when Hull scored twice, against the overall trend.
There were several outstanding individual efforts, mostly in the Fylde pack. No.8 Sam Beaumont was the game's most potent operator and had able allies in Grant Ferguson and Alan Holmes. Ferguson produced the best display of line-out jumping seen by a Fylde player for some time as he made the most of his opportunity.
Nick Royle showed his finishing powers, his hat-trick bringing his tally for the season to 17 tries in only 13 games.
It says much for Fylde's ability to score tries that none of Saturday's seven was recorded by leading scorer Oliver Brennand, who has 26 from 23 matches.
Fylde had the first chance after excellent work from the scrumbase by Beaumont, but referee Rob Sheard ruled a forward pass as the line loomed for left winger Brennand.
A penalty conceded by Ferguson led to a sustained bout of pressure by Hull, and the home side did well to repel their testing attacks.
Play swung rapidly to the other end and Albinson stroked over a 14th-minute penalty for the opening score.
Beaumont's purposeful runs were the highlight of an error and penalty-strewn opening quarter with too few entertaining interludes.
It was from one such surge by Beaumont that Fylde chalked up their opening try, winning a line out and a scrum close to the Ionians' line from which flanker Dan Palmer squeezed over on the short side.
David Wiseman passed up the chance of a solo try after intercepting a sloppy pass inside his own 22.
But the centre never looked confident that his surge would take him to the line, despite having more than a head-start, and he damaged his ankle when he was caught. He needed treatment soon after and was replaced by Kenyon.
Albinson missed a long-range penalty attempt after 37 minutes, by which time all the play was in the Hull half, but Fylde added to their lead two minutes later.
Beaumont – again! – and the industrious Alan Holmes pounded the line from a scrum before the ball was switched to the blindside for prop Adam Lewis to finish in the corner and make it 13-0 at half-time.
Within three minutes of the restart Fylde notched their third try from a length-of-the-field counter-offensive.
Much of the groundwork came from scrum-half and stand-in skipper Aikman, who left would-be tacklers in his wake with a sprint down the left.
The attack switched flanks and right-winger Royle only needed to be shown the outside to help himself to a try, accelerating away from the opposition from 12 metres out.
Fylde were starting to hit their stride and the bonus-point try arrived on 50 minutes.
Wallwork shipped a long ball to Kieran Brookes, who forged his way down the middle with a tremendous run before finding Albinson in acres of space to complete the move.
Hull's problems mounted when hooker Carl Mortimer was yellow-carded but they belatedly opened their account with 15 minutes remaining as Fylde eased off.
Second rower Lee Brown galloped through for a simple try, converted by Adam Thomas from in front of the posts. That was almost immediately cancelled out by an enterprising run by Royle, who just ran out of space on the right.
But Fylde did cross seconds later, when Beaumont's outstanding individual display was rewarded with a pushover try. Beaumont spent the closing minutes of the match in the sin-bin as Fylde rang the changes, Dave Wilks and Mark Stephenson coming on for Dan Bowman and Palmer.
Hull took advantage of their extra man with a pushover try by Daniel Hague, converted by Thomas.
Fylde finished with a two-try flourish from Royle. Right on the 80th minute, Brennand was halted just short but the momentum of the attack was maintained and Royle wriggled over. And he completed his hat-trick in stoppage time.
The lack of a kicker was hardly a worry for Fylde on this occasion, though a routine win could quite easily have turned into a rout.
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Weather for Blackpool
Monday 13 February 2012
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