Fylde kicked off their 2026/27 National Two North season on Saturday.

Fylde RFC opened their 2026/27 campaign in National Two (North) with Saturday’s hard-earned 17-7 victory at Billingham.

The Greenwood Road ground has a fast 4G pitch and provided an excellent surface which both teams attempted to exploit, not particularly successfully in a scrappy first half.

Fylde’s afternoon didn’t start in the best fashion when they had to make a late alteration to their starting line-up.

Player-coach Matt Garrod had travelled independently to the ground but was held up in traffic, meaning Charlie Wilkinson switched from being a replacement to lock forward and Garrod would be added to the bench when he arrived.

Billingham started strongly, dominating possession and territory in the opening quarter.

Fylde were under pressure from the outset, conceding a number of penalties but defending their try line with great determination to combat Billingham’s driving mauls.

Billingham were unable to turn territorial domination into points and the stalemate continued until the half-hour.

Charlie Partington was shown a yellow card for a high tackle near the Fylde line and, in his absence, the home side took immediate advantage.

From a quick tap penalty, Anthony Jackson drove over the line and Luke Wilson converted easily to give Billingham a 7-0 lead.

The game remained fractured – and rather fractious – in the closing minutes of the half.

Fylde progressed to 30 metres from the home line but their scrum was turned over and both teams retired to the changing rooms.

Garrod and James Sutcliffe both came on for the second half and Fylde began to raise their game.

Chris Rudkin offloaded to Danny Cassidy, who kicked through the opposition defence.

A Billingham player knocked on close to their line but the visitors were unable to work an advantage.

Then, in the 50th minute, Fylde managed to exert concerted pressure on the home defence.

That resulted in fly-half Dan Slawson jinking through to score from close range, Cassidy adding the conversion to level the scores at 7-7.

Both sides made more changes as Fylde introduced Ben Turner in place of Adam Lanigan, Corey Bowker was reintroduced for Rudkin and Vinny Durcan replaced Will Kelso at centre.

Billingham’s Luke Wilson saw yellow for a high tackle and Cassidy made no mistake from the subsequent penalty to edge his side in front at 10-7.

Fylde then delivered the coup de grace in the 72nd minute, when Leo Gilliland broke clear downfield and kicked deep into the Billingham half.

Scrum-half Gabe Maguire won the race and touched the ball down wide out, building on an impressive start to last season despite a long injury absence.

To put further gloss on the try, Cassidy added the conversion from near the touchline in stretching Fylde’s lead to 10 points.

Billingham’s heads didn’t drop and they battled back as Turner became the second Fylde player to be penalised for foul play and yellow-carded in the last five minutes.

However, there was insufficient time for the home side to claw back their deficit.

Billingham: Rickard (Plews); Groark, Pickering, Wilson, Horner; Evans, Lane (Syson); Telfer (Headlam, Telfer, Dixon), Hyndman, Clark (Dixon, Clark), White (Evans), Browell, Burns, Turton, Jackson.

Fylde: Cassidy; Gilliland, Kelso (Durcan), Forster, Lanigan (Turner); Slawson, Maguire; Bowker (Hulbert), Williamson (Sutcliffe), Rudkin (Bowker), Greenwood, Wilkinson, Partington (Garrod), Kasam-Sharples, M Walton (Partington).