Fylde RFC 57 Huddersfield 14: Bouncing back from defeat in style

Tom Carleton was at the centre of proceedings, scoring a hat-trick as Fylde made a number of changes from the team beaten a week earlier.

With the sun out, Fylde again started the match in brisk fashion and put pressure on the Huddersfield line from the kick-off.

They shipped the ball out to the left where Sam Stott crashed over from close range with barely a minute played.

Adam Lanigan doubled Fylde’s lead as he started and finished a fine move.

He burst through the Huddersfield line and exchanged passes with the supporting Jordan Dorrington before flying up the left wing and touching down for a 10-0 lead.

A ruck infringement saw David Fairbrother sent to the sinbin and Fylde paid the price.

Huddersfield found themselves down by the Fylde line for the first time and, after a period of sustained pressure, captain Lewis Bradley went over for a converted score to make it 10-7.

Bradley then went from hero to zero when a similar ruck infringement saw him off for 10 minutes, making it Fylde’s turn to capitalise.

Skipper Ben Gregory joined the back of a trademark rolling maul from a lineout and scored his ninth try of the season.

Adam Lewis came off the bench and made an instant impact, crashing over with a charging run from close range, before Dorrington raced clear to score under the posts.

That put Fylde 29-7 ahead but the visitors responded as one of their replacements, Callum Thompson, barged over with Tom Lee’s conversion making it 29-14 at the break.

The second half took a while to get going but the game seemed to spark into life after Scott Rawlings won a penalty near his own line.

Some brilliant offloads from Fylde sent Carleton up the left-hand side, where he twice bounced off the opposition full-back to score in the corner, Greg Smith converting.

Next to score was Ben Turner, who notched a brilliant solo try as he jinked his way through before beating the full-back for pace to touch down.

Carleton then grabbed his second, supporting Stott’s break before taking the pass to cross, with Smith’s conversions taking Fylde to their half-century.

They weren’t finished as Huddersfield failed to deal with Smith’s long kick and Carleton picked up the pieces to complete his hat-trick and the scoring.

Fylde now have a well-deserved week off, giving them an opportunity to get some of their injured players back and ready for selection again.

With only two games remaining at the Woodlands before Christmas, they will be wanting to ensure they can carry that unbeaten home record into 2023 and keep up the pressure on leaders Sedgley.

Fylde RFC: Carleton, Turner, Stott, Wilkinson, Dorrington, Smith, Lanigan, Bowker, Gregory, Ashcroft, Corrie, Garrod, Harrison, Higginson, Fairbrother. Replacements: Lewis, Parker, Parkinson, O’Ryan, Rawlings.

Huddersfield: Hodson, Workman, Law, Barber, Stewart, Lee, Wilson, Rollins, Myers, Effiom, Pearson, Jones, Brown, Bradley, Jennings. Replacements: Stapley, Thompson, Dawson, Catleugh, Knight.