Sale FC 34 Fylde 14: Final pre-season outing sees Fylde beaten
Fylde went down to defeat when they travelled to face National One high-flyers Sale FC on Saturday.
Sale fielded a strong, powerful line-up, while Fylde were without Tom Carleton, Greg Smith and Tom Grimes.
Fylde started strongly and were on top for the first half-hour, posing lots of attacking threat without converting their play into points.
The home side eventually broke through in the 27th minute when their forwards went through numerous phases before Samir Tahraoui drove over and James Robins converted.
Five minutes later, Sale extended their lead as Tom Brady and Fergus Mulchrone combined to create space for Nev Edwards to score.
Fylde’s pack worked hard to maintain reasonable parity against their Sale counterparts, holding their own in the scrummages and, after a few early problems, retaining most of their lineout ball.
However, on half-time, a piece of opportunism from Sammi Adu saw him pick up a loose ball near halfway and sprint clear to score, giving Sale FC a 17-0 lead at the break.
Facing his former club, Fylde’s Matt Sturgess was sinbinned on 49 minutes which allowed Sale to score two tries in his absence.
Brady broke and set up Edwards for his second try before the latter’s long pass was taken by Robins, who touched down.
Trailing 29-0, Fylde opened their account on 66 minutes when Sturgess’ clever chip caused a scramble which ended with Harlan Corrie scoring and Alex Clayton converting.
Nevertheless, Sale scored a sixth try on 71 minutes when Matt Bradley put in Adu for his second of the afternoon.
It was Fylde who had the final word, Sturgess sprinting 40 metres to score with Clayton converting.