Fylde quick to expose Dale’s depleted ranks

FYLDE Hawks were the visitors to Marl Pits on Saturday in the latest fixture in the Cotton Traders Premier League taking on the Rossendale RUFC second team.

The Hawks had a full compliment of players and substitutes to draw on whilst Dale had to play a man down due to late cry offs and once again had a big rotation in playing staff from previous weeks due to unavailability.

It wasn’t just the numerical advantage however that Fylde brought with them.

They had a back line that oozed skill and speed and after only three minutes of play recorded their first score with a break out wide, despite last ditch defensive efforts the mass of supporting players for the ball handler made things all a bit to easy.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for the home side even at such an early stage but as has been stated time and time again in these reports when the chips are down the fighting spirit of this Rossendale team comes to the fore.

An experienced set of lads working in the pack set their stall out and deployed tactics that didn’t play into the hands of the speedy Fylde starlets.

It used to be known as tucking the ball under your jumper but it is probably more technically termed nowadays.

Basically the Dale forwards kept it tight and continually drove the ball into the Fylde forwards. Keeping possession was the key because if we had the ball they couldn’t score. The backs did their bit as well. They ably took up the challenge to keep the drives going and soon we had some excellent breaks gaining ground through a tiring Fylde pack.

Israr Asif enjoying the Captaincy for the day gave a real leaders knock and was well supported by Ayrton Campbell and Scott Marshall.

On occasions the ball did leave the tight area Nathan Connolly, Olly Molloy and James Willetts made some probing runs and had the sense to make sure the forwards didn’t have to far to travel to resume the compressed tactics.

The result was that for 20 plus minutes Rossendale had a good hold on the game and whilst not registering any points themselves kept the score down to 7-0.

Unfortunately some mistakes and a couple of turn overs at the back end of the half saw Fylde gain more ground and despite some thunderous defense particularly highlighting efforts from Hayden Wells and Tyler Johnson the visitors posted three more tries to end the half with a comfortable lead.

Sadly in the second half Dale couldn’t quite match the intensity they found in the first.

Whilst they started out strongly a combination of injuries to several players and a tiring team due to the numbers factor saw Fylde eventually run out 56-0 winners.

Virtually all the Fylde tries came from breaks out wide where their speed and guile was just to much to handle and fully exploited the man advantage.

Whilst the score line was in the end justified the Dale lads deserved something else out of this but just couldn’t cross the line and had to make do with the satisfaction that they had put in a real hard gutsy performance.

In finale it seems almost harsh to highlight specific individuals for their efforts on the day as everyone who took to the field gave 110 per cent and could hold their heads high.

However it would be remiss to not mention the performance of Matt Jackson who in only his second game back in nearly four years put in a tireless display of rugby both in open play and showed a belting pair of hands in the line out. The future remains positive as do the team.

Both Rossendale RUFC Seconds and Third team would like to highlight that they are always keen to see both new or returning players to bolster the ranks and would be warmly welcomed to this friendly local club. If interested contact details can be found on the clubs website at www.rossendalerufc.com