Fylde RFC's full squad to choose from

Joint-team boss Alex Loney has a full squad at his disposal, raring to go in the testing opener at Sheffield RUFC (3pm).

They go into the game on the back of pre-season wins against Rossendale (66-26) and Blackburn (17-10).

Loney told The Gazette: “The cherry on the cake is that we’re fit, healthy and in good order.

“This time last year, we’d picked up some injuries in pre-season.

“We are delighted with the squad and, in terms of numbers and depth, we are in a better place than last year.”

There are no ill-effects from the warm-up wins over Rossendale and Blackburn.

Loney added: “We had two tough tests. Looking at the results, you may think Rossendale was the easier but they were both challenging in different areas.

“We had more of a flow to our game against Rossendale and put some nice passages of play together.

“We were a bit disappointed with the errors against Blackburn but pleased with the defence.

“The message is that there are a lot of promising signs.”

Fylde have named a senior squad of 36 for the eight-month season, including 14 fresh faces and a new captain in Toby Harrison.

“That was a really tough decision but we are confident in Toby,” said Loney.

“On the pitch, he’s had a couple of top seasons and picked up our major awards.

“He’s been at the club since he was seven and has the respect of the boys.

“We have a strong leadership group, with Dave Fairbrother and Jordan Dorrington as vice-captains.”

It’s no secret Fylde are looking to improve on last season’s fifth-placed finish, though more specific goals are being kept in-house.

“We do have targets but we don’t want to chuck statements out there,” said Loney.

“We know what we want to achieve with the potential we have.

“In years gone by we’ve competed at the top end, though we were a bit off last season.

“For now we just want to start well and get the group embedded and, if we’re sort of in the mix come Christmas, the focus will change.”

Starting well won’t be easy against last season’s third-placed finishers.

“Sheffield are a class side, who had an outstanding season,” said Loney.

“You could see signs of that the year before.

“They will be optimistic and we face a really tough task, but we’re looking forward to a high-quality game.”