Rotherham Titans 16 Fylde RFC 41: Visitors maintain their perfect start to the season

Fylde outscored the hosts by five tries to one for a sixth straight bonus point win, their best start to a season since bonus points were introduced in 2000.

On a dry, sunny day, Fylde kicked off into a strongish breeze and only took six minutes to open the scoring.

Clean lineout ball from Harlan Corrie was spun down the backs with dummy runners creating a sliver of an overlap.

Adam Lanigan took the ball at pace, skinned his man and dived in at the right corner for a well-worked team try, Greg Smith beginning a perfect day with the boot by converting.

Rotherham then had a spell of pressure, Corben Ollivent kicking a penalty on 12 minutes to open their account and make it 7-3.

Back came Fylde and, on 21 minutes, they forced a lineout on the Rotherham 22 with the ball moved along the backs.

With the home defence up flat, Connor Wilkinson slid through a perfect grubber before regathering and touching down for Fylde’s second try, Smith converting from the touchline.

Rotherham gathered themselves and their pack’s power told four minutes later when they made a mess of Fylde’s scrum.

They swooped on the loose ball with Sam Boxhall going in for a try, converted by Ollivent to make it 14-10.

He then kicked a second penalty to pull Rotherham within one point before Fylde’s front row got to grips with their opponents and the hosts’ scrum penalties dried up.

Rotherham sent another penalty to touch but Fylde took the lineout, forced a penalty and then saw their opponents marched back for dissent.

Smith capitalised, kicking the resulting penalty to give Fylde a 17-13 lead at half-time.

Ten minutes after the break, Smith kicked a penalty for a five-yard lineout from which a catch-and-drive ended with Ben Gregory touching down and Smith converting.

Poor restart accuracy invited pressure back on Fylde and, despite two lineout steals, some poor exit options eventually allowed Ollivent to kick another penalty and make the score 24-16.

Fylde began to cut out the errors and produced their best 20 minutes of the season.

Smith’s lovely grubber kick at just the right time saw Sam Stott charge through and dot down for another converted try.

Fylde now monopolised possession and used the elements to pin back Rotherham, putting together patient, accurate phases to pressure Rotherham.

The returning Scott Rawlings bounced off two tackles and offloaded to the supporting Jordan Dorrington, who sliced through to score near the posts.

Smith’s conversion made it 38-16 before he completed the scoring with a penalty on 77 minutes.

Fylde then saw out the remaining time to record their best away victory for several seasons ahead of Saturday’s home match against Wharfedale.

Fylde: Dorrington; Lanigan (Rawlings 74), Wilkinson, Rawlings (Stott 34), Grimes; Smith, Sturgess; Bowker (Lewis 57), Gregory, Altham (Ashcroft 40), Parkinson, Corrie (Garrod 40), Harrison (Fairbrother 40), Higginson, Woodman.

Rotherham: Veall, Hedley, Sableman-Blue, Dunne, Taylor, Ollivent, Boxhall (Ramrattan 54), Capps (Donkor 31, (Rylance 52), Bergmanas (Inman 69), Denman (Donkor 63), Poole, Challinor, Payne (Nwoshu-Hope 49), Kay, Bustin.