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Fylde 35 Hull Ionians 9 - National 2 North Photos
Hull Ionians
forwards once again gained plenty of possession, including stealing a Fylde
scrum, but a well organised defensive wall was letting nothing through while
Fylde showed the way to the line with pure pace with fullback Nick Royle once
again scoring a hat-trick against Hull Ionians. It proved to be a frustrating
journey for the club not helped by injury and sickness disrupting team
selection, with a late change called Friday night too. Rob Kench provided plenty
of hard work in the pack with scrum half Joe Bartlett organising play well
around them, but Fylde’s ability to slow the ball down meant there was only a
well drilled defensive line to attack.
Hull Ionians received the kick-off, kicked it deep and clear, only for Nick
Royle to spot the gaps and race away for a 75 metre try in the first minute.
Hull Ionians took play to the line but lost the ball to be kicked back down the
field where Tom Barlow increased the hosts lead with a penalty. The rest of the
half was a tight contest with both sides getting close to the goal line but
unable to breach it, one sustained Hull Ionians attack stopped by Fylde being
offside for Iain Gordon to strike a penalty in reply. In injury time a Fylde
line-out catch and drive was then spun out and a looped pass saw Royle gallop
through again, Barlow converting. Straight from the next kick-off Hull Ionians
won the ball and drove forwards and once again Fylde infringed and Iain Gordon
made it 15-6 at the break.
Straight from the restart James Rule stole the ball and led the drive forwards
with Fylde offside yet again for Iain Gordon to make it 15-9 to give the
visitors hope. In reply Fylde showed far more attacking flair when they moved
the ball wide helped by their pack providing much quicker ball and Barlow soon
added a penalty, then lost ball in the tackle saw Royle break again with flanker
Laurie Smith in support to score. Barlow converted then added a third penalty
with Fylde further breaks halted by good cover defence forcing handling errors.
On 70 minutes a fine break by Barlow set Royle clear for his hat-trick with
Barlow again converting. The final 10 minutes saw Hull Ionians again applying
close range pressure, using the penalties to create attacking line-outs rather
than goals, with Rob Kench and Scott Wilson both being just held up at the line
denying them a consolation try.