Fylde 43 Wharfedale 3

A tense start to proceedings saw both sides struggling to get the scoring going, but Fylde were slowly starting to win the early tug of war between the two teams and were rewarded when they won a penalty right in front of the posts.

Greg Smith stepped up and converted to edge his side in front, but it took until the 20th minute for the first try of the game to be scored.

Tristan Woodman got the home side up and running when he wrong-footed the Wharfedale defence with an excellent jinking run, which saw him dive over under the sticks to score.

Smith sat third in the overall points scoring table coming into the game with 57, and he quickly made it 62 with this conversion and his early penalty goal, as Fylde led 10-0.

Wharfedale responded by winning a penalty of their own near the Fylde line, an opportunity which was always too good to refuse for the man who came into the game trailing Fylde’s Smith by two points in the points scoring charts, Tom Mann, who stepped up and slotted it over to make it 10-3.

One characteristic of this Fylde side is the driving maul they always execute superbly near the opposition’s line, and when they won a penalty in the Wharfedale 22, Smith managed to place the resulting kick right in the corner.

Gregory’s throw was collected before the skipper latched onto the back of the maul and cleverly handed the ball back to Scott Rawlings, who helped drive them over the line and touch down to score.

Smith was pinpoint again with the boot and extended his side’s advantage to 17-3, and that’s how it stayed until after half-time, with both teams seemingly slotting back into the arm wrestle they had found themselves in for the opening 10 minutes.

The second-half started with a bang, with less than 60 seconds gone on the clock Fylde had already scored and what a try it was.

Connor Wilkinson brought back an excellent kick return to break clear through the ‘Dale’ defence, before he kicked over the on rushing full-back and found Jordan Dorrington who dived on the ball in the corner to score.

Smith couldn’t convert this time but Fylde were rolling and the shackles were well and truly off now.

The visitors were struggling to break down the home defence but they couldn’t keep Fylde out themselves, this time Olli Parkinson crashing over from close range to give Fylde the bonus point at 29-3.

Ben Turner finished off an excellent passing move out wide before Adam Lanigan, who was back in at scrum-half for the absent Matt Sturgess, did what every good scrum-half does and backed up a Smith break to score, and with Smith converting both, Fylde now led 43-3.

That’s how it finished, and Fylde were now the perfect seven from seven in the league thisseason.