Fylde welcome Hull Ionians to the Woodlands for the penultimate home game of the season (ko 15.00) on Ladies Day, Saturday 21st March, at the Club.

It should be a busy day as Fylde's women enjoy the entertainment provided by champagne maker Laurent Perrier,  leading Lancashire-based fashion retailer Maureen Cookson, & Virgin Vie Cosmetics. See below for details.

Also, the Woodlands Clubhouse will be showing live coverage of all three final Six Nations Championship games -  England v Scotland (15:30), Italy v France (13:15) and Wales v Ireland (17:30). The England game will be re-shown in full at 17.30 in parts of the Clubhouse.

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Fylde & Ionians have already met twice during the campaign, both at Ionians' Brantingham Park ground. The first saw an inexperienced team of mainly 2nd team Fylde players lose 7-34 in the EDF National Trophy. A week later the 1st team went back to the ground to win by 21-10 in a league game.

Ionians have had a mixed season and sit comfortably in mid-table. Their home form is quite good with six out of ten games won but away from Brantingham Park has been harder for them with just two wins and seven defeats so far. Perhaps their finest performance was to lose 19-20 at leaders Caldy through a home try in the last ten minutes of a hard fought game. Last Saturday they had a convincing 35-20 victory at bottom of the table Halifax. They have a tight defence and have yet to suffer a heavy defeat by any opponents.

Hull Ionians was formed in 1989 by the merger of Hull and East Riding (established in 1906) with Ionians (1926), a club named after the ancient all conquering tribe based in the Greek Islands. Leagues in rugby union had started two season earlier with Hull and East Riding playing in North One and Ionians in Yorkshire Three, six levels lower at that time. The new club took on the old Hull and East Riding fixture list and adopted the Elloughton ground as their home, the freehold property then owned by Ionians.

At this stage Hull and East Riding were down to a small first XV squad without ownership of their own ground or clubhouse. Ionians owned their ground and clubhouse had a thriving mini/junior section that was developing many excellent young players, but a first team that required more experience in order to retain them. The merger was therefore a perfect arrangement and proved to be just that immediately. The new 'Hull Ionians' had a brief flirtation with national rugby in 2002/3 but were relegated immediately. But two seasons later they were back in National Three (North), this time through the play-off route beating Kettering in April 2005. Ionians have survived reasonably comfortably in the last three seasons, finishing in 8th, 10th & 8th in the division. They are currently in 9th place.

The leading figure who has guided Ionians through this development period as head coach is the accomplished former Harlequins, London Scottish & Wakefield lock Mick Watson. He still makes the occasional 1st team appearance in the engine room of the scrummage but is generally happy to give way to his younger charges.

Watson has built a very stable, consistent squad over the past three seasons. He strengthened it during the summer by attracting centres Peter Murphy (ex-Morley) and Luke Thundercliffe (Bridlington) and scrum-half Adam Thomas (Bridlington).

Links between Ionians and Hull RFC have been strengthened with the recruitment of the Super League club's chief executive Jimmy Rule as a player at Brantingham Park. Rule, 28, a lock forward with previous experience at Newcastle Falcons, is the youngest chief executive in the top flight of RL and has returned to the club at which he started his playing career as a junior. He has recently been honoured with a place in the England Counties squad which played Ireland & France Amateurs.

A strong pack of forwards include skipper and flanker Richard Wigham, his younger brother Mark, highly experienced lock Richard Hill (ex-Halifax), promising young props Arthur Thundercliffe and Adrian Longbone, and backrower Danny Hague. Another relative newcomer is knarled veteran prop Scott Wilson who has a cv including most of Yorkshire's leading clubs including Morley, Harrogate, Rotherham & Doncaster

Their backline include highly promising fly-half James Ferguson, fullback James Green, centre Travis Plumridge and wingers Tim Nixon & Joe Donkin. Goal kicking is the responsibility of fly-half Karl Birch or James Ferguson. The Ionians squad includes Fylde & KEQMS product, centre Rob Whittam, at university in Hull, who has made eight starting league appearances. Their most recent addition is fullback or winger Danny Smith who has jumped ship at troubled N1 club Otley to return to one of his old clubs. He has a fine try scoring record in National One.

Ionians squad is:

15 Mike Cawthorn; 14 Danny Smith, 13 Peter Murphy, 12 Travis Plumridge, 11 Gary Stephenson; 10 Karl Birch, 9 Adam Thomas; 1 Scott Wilson, 2 Carl Mortimer, 3 Andy Gravil, 4 Richard Hill, 5 Lee Brown, 6 Richard Wigham, 7 Mark Wigham, 8 Danny Hague.

Reps.: 16 Chris Starling, 17 Tom Rice, 18 Chris Cusack, 19 Mick Watson,    20 Rob Whittam.

Fylde recall a fully recovered Sam Beaumont to the backrow and Grant Ferguson takes over at lock from injured skipper Roger Banks.

15 Martin Wallwork; 14 Nick Royle, 13 David Wiseman, 12 Tom Albinson, 11 Oliver Brennand; 10 Neil Hunter, 9 Craig Aikman; 1 Adam Lewis, 2 Alan Holmes, 3 Kieran Brookes, 4 Alistair Atkinson, 5 Grant Ferguson, 6 Dan Bowman, 7 Dan Palmer, 8 Sam Beaumont.

Replacements: 16 Andrew Irving, 17 Mark Stephenson, 18 Dave Wilks, 19 Mark Edwards, 20 Richard Kenyon.

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Ladies Day

Ladies Day will be held in collaboration with champagne maker Laurent Perrier,  leading Lancashire-based fashion retailer Maureen Cookson, & Virgin V Cosmetics. There will be displays and samples of products from all three companies.

      

To book lunch places in the Woodlands Suite please contact Andy Baker (Marketing Manager) as soon as possible on: 01253 734733 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

All that and ...

The Vixens Slave Auction

Fylde's new Women's team, the Vixens, are holding a Slave Auction on Saturday 21st March in the Clubhouse.

Please come and support them! The Auction is to raise some funds for the Women's team to support them when they enter the (North2) League in September.

The Slave Auction will feature some of the Womens & Mens Rugby Teams..... all are available at a price!

The night will be hosted by Miss Bonna Petite, a hilarious drag queen compère, who will ensure a night to remember. The best part is that entry is free!

Entertainment will start from 19.30 so ensure you arrive in plenty of time to bag yourself a slave and most importantly get the drinks in! The Vixens are very appreciative of all your support thus far and hope you will continue to support us in the run up to September!