Fylde fall prey to flock of Falcons

Head coach Mark Nelson admitted Tynedale’s star power proved too much as a raft of Newcastle Falcons loanees condemned his Fylde team to another defeat at this unhappy hunting ground.

Falcons’ director of rugby Dean Richards was watching on from the stands as five of his young guns, including Fylde old boy Harrison Collins, enabled a Tynedale side which began the day second-bottom of National One to race into a 19-0 lead against the third-placed club by the 15-minute mark.

Centre Ben Frankland muscled over after just four minutes and added a second from a driving maul six minutes later.

And when a break by Kiwi flanker Daniel Temm enabled scrum-half Greg Illingworth to send winger Sep Visser in at the corner, Fylde were in deep trouble.

Fly-half Gavin Beasley converted two of these tries for the 19-0 scoreline.

Temm and Fylde’s Simon Griffiths were yellow carded by referee Andrew Jackson as was the home side’s Kristian Borthwick in the second half, though this did not prevent full-back Craig Willis extending the lead on 62 minutes with a converted try following a couple of scrum surges.

Though the visitors managed to stem the tide in the second half, they could only muster a consolation score through replacement hooker Mark Rylance right at the death, by which time Fylde lock Paul Arnold had become the fourth player to sample the sin-bin.

Following the impressive home wins over leaders Doncaster Knights and Loughborough Students, Fylde’s second successive away defeat of 2014 was a disappointment and Nelson believes Fylde were made to rue a slew of missed chances before the break.

“I was speaking to Dean Richards at the game and on the day the team that deserved to win did so,” said Nelson.

“It was disappointing for us. We’ve had two very good back-to-back victories at home but these things happen and we will dust ourselves down.

“I think the difference was the players they brought in and it was galling to have Harrison Collins running at us.

“It’s one of those games when we didn’t manage to get out of second gear. We had opportunities in the first 20 minutes to lay down a marker and we didn’t really.”

Fly-half Scott Barrow captained Fylde in the absence of Chris Johnson, who was away on England Counties duty along with Chris Briers. With Charles Hough unavailable to replace Briers at centre, Jordan Dorrington filled the gap.

Fylde retain third spot but are now 15 points behind leaders Doncaster.

But Nelson insists there is no point dwelling on the past as he prepares for the challenge of Esher, who are just a point below in fourth, next Saturday.

“It is what it is,” added Nelson. “We came out and played better in the second half, but as we found ourselves 19 points down and couldn’t make many inroads.

“We should have had a scrum under the posts right at the end of the game and we also had a debatable yellow card, but in the grand scheme of things it was a bad day at the office.”

The win enabled the Yorkshiremen to climb out of the bottom two, though their position is perhaps a false one after this fourth win in five matches since the turn of the year.