Fylde RFC step up pre-season preparations

Saturday’s first warm-up match at Blackburn (2.30pm) will be followed seven days later by a Woodlands tri-tournament involving Sale FC and a touring Hawick side, then the league season begins at home to Sheffield Tigers on September 2.

The warm-up weekends have never been more important as players literally get to grips with the most radical rule change to hit rugby union in recent times.

Tackling above the height of the sternum has been outlawed at all levels of the men’s game below the top two professional tiers and the new rule will be applied in a Fylde fixture for the first time this Saturday.

The rule-change hasn’t dominated Fylde’s planning for 2023/24 but has been part of it, as joint-head coach Alex Loney told The Gazette.

“It’s been part of our conversation but mainly in terms of what we think will happen,” he said.

“The RFU have put clinics on to work on tackle techniques but there are still areas which are a bit of an unknown, particularly over ball-carrying.

“We will be looking to the officials in the warm-up games so we can be ready for the start of the season.

“We try to tackle strong to the lower part of the body. We never coach players to tackle high anyway and hopefully this will be fairly natural to them.

“We aren’t here to try to get round the rules and we just want to be positive about the change.”

Regardless of new rules, the Fylde squad are relishing a return to the field of play after four months.

Loney added: “Pre-season has gone well. I don’t think players love it and it isn’t my favourite time because you want to be getting into the nuts and bolts of playing games.

“We’ve built a good team spirit, with everyone encouraging each other and working hard.

“We’re a bit short of match fitness but there’s a lot of commitment and we’ve got some good work done.”

With former Fylde back and prolific goalkicker Steve Gough added to the senior coaching group, Loney and Chris Briers are looking forward to a second full season as Fylde bosses since the pandemic.

First appointed in January 2021, the pair have extended their contracts to cover the next two campaigns and Loney said: “The deal is really good for both of us.

“When we first took over, the idea of joint-head coaches wasn’t widely used and I suppose it still isn’t, but we’ve had a good time.

“Our relationship is as strong as ever and we haven’t fallen out yet.”

As is customary in the first warm-up game, it may be difficult to keep count of all the players involved at Blackburn.

“We’ll pick a big squad but a couple will be missing because of other commitments,” said Loney.

“We’re pleased to be visiting a good club who gave us a fantastic pre-season game last year. We’re ready for a really tough test.”