Powerful Park are leaders of the pack
Sedgley Pk ....... 37pts Fylde .................. 22pts
SEDGLEY PARK produced an excellent allround performance to take the honours in a battle between two sides who came into the game on the back of big wins and with the prospect of perfect conditions to play open rugby.
An explosive first 40 saw both sides forcing the pace and running the ball in the early exchanges.
And it was Fylde who had most of the ball in the first 15 minutes, although they only had a three-point penalty from Smith to show for it because of a solid Sedgley defensive wall.
But this was soon negated as Collins replied with a penalty shortly afterwards.
This, however, proved to be the wake-up call for the Tigers, who then dominated territory and possession coming up the hill.
A period of flowing rugby saw a clever crossfield kick by Ollie Glasse, which found Matt Gallagher out wide for the first try of the game.
Collins converted from out wide.
Sedge, smelling blood as the visitors went down to 14 men, ramped up the pressure with a great catch and drive culminating in another Gallagher touch down.
The Tigers piled on the pressure with quick hands followed by a clever chip forward by Collins which resulted in Andy Riley gathering to touch down. Collins converted to make it 27-3.
To polish off the first half, the Tigers fly-half then popped a penalty over to make it 30-3 at the break
The second half resumed in similar fashion to the first with the Tigers in blistering form.
A well-worked try started by the pace of Jamie Harrison helped put Riley in space again for Sedge’s bonus point try, which was again converted by Collins to extend the lead to 37-3
Fylde, to their credit, dug deep, and following a yellow card to Tigers loose head Blanchard, stemmed the tide and broke a wall of Tigers’ defence, with a try out wide for Carleton to dot down for the visitors’ first try, which was successfully converted by Smith.
More pressure from the visitors, with Sedge down to 14, continued and they didn’t need any encouragement to exploit the space, with a second try soon following for Fylde from Tom Grimes.
At this stage, the Tigers needed territory, and on a forced play they coughed up ball from a scrum, enabling Fylde to break the length of the field, which deceived the cover defence for Grimes to add his second, and Fylde’s third try.
It was game on.
But the Tigers resumed parity in numbers and the game swung back to the home side.
In the final phases, they went back on the front foot to ensure top spot in the league with another blend of high-tempo running rugby together with a resolute defence.