Fylde RFC 21 Sheffield 33: Fylde finish the season with Woodlands defeat

With fourth place secured, there was only pride to play for against a Sheffield team which narrowly missed out on promotion.

Sheffield proved just how tough an opposition they would be in scoring after 10 minutes.

Their first visit to the Fylde 22 brought a lineout maul which rolled straight over the home side’s line, Ryan Burrows finishing off an unstoppable drive in a sign of things to come.

It got even worse a few minutes later when David Fairbrother lost possession in the middle of the park.

That resulted in a superbly clinical counter-attack from Sheffield as they ripped apart the Fylde defence, Elliot Fisher touching down and adding the conversion to give them a 12-point lead.

Despite some hearty line defence, Fylde eventually succumbed to more pressure on the half-hour as a brilliant end-to-end counter saw Burrows score his second try.

The conversion made it 19-0 and left Fylde needing to switch on if they were to get anything from the game.

They finally began to do so towards the back end of the half, scoring two tries to put themselves back in contention.

Mike Walton scored the first, stunning the Sheffield defence by tapping a penalty quickly and dodging the visitors’ defence to go under the posts.

That was followed by a try-saving interception which saw Ben Turner run the length of the field to score a beautiful solo try.

Both scores were converted, meaning Fylde were only five points behind at 19-14 as tensions began to build.

On the stroke of half-time, Fylde’s Will Hunt and Sheffield’s Cammy Catleugh were then sinbinned by referee Peter Connor as both teams started the second period one man down.

Fylde’s hard work at the end of the first half was erased rather quickly as Chris Hooper found a gap in their defence and raced between the posts.

They were completely back to square one when far too many phases in the Fylde 22 saw the defence open up and enabled Burrows to complete his hat-trick.

Sheffield then saw out the game very effectively as Fylde could not find a way to break through until the 80th minute.

Moments after Sheffield’s Felix Crapper was yellow-carded, Fylde substitute – and Kirkham Grammar School sixth former – Seb Krippner made an instant impact as he bounced off tackles and showed pace to score his first senior try.

Rather fittingly then, the try was drop-converted by another replacement, Scott Rawlings, who retired last season and was only in the squad because of Fylde’s injury woes.

However, despite a try which combined young and old, Fylde eventually fell short of their target; perhaps a fitting end to a season which just fell short of a real promotion push, but had many positives and memorable results.

Fylde RFC: Turner, Lanigan (Krippner 52), Clayton (Gaughan 78), Forster (Rawlings 52), Smith (Lanigan 72), Hunt, Gaughan (Gould 57); Bowker (Rudkin 40), Williamson (Forster 72), Altham, Walton (Dorrington 66), Morgan, Harrison, Dorrington (Davis 29, Bowker 66), Fairbrother.

Sheffield: Hooper, Catleugh, Drennan, Castledine, Dawson (Flint 64), Posa, Fisher (Taylor 66); Whitney (Reid 52), Campbell, Hicklin (Rogers 52), A Crapper, Thorpe (Lonsdale 25), Fawdry, F Crapper, Burrows.