Fylde, in 2nd place in National Two (North), travel to Mint Bridge on Saturday to face old rivals Kendal (ko 14.00) at what is the halfway point of the season. Despite Kendal's disappointing league campaign to date, this game is likely to be as hard and close as ever. There's always extra spice to clashes between the two clubs and Fylde will remember their comprehensive 16-29 defeat in Cumbria last season.

The Lancastrians have had rather the better of games between the clubs over the past decade although there's been a very unusual sequence of draws, four in the last nine matches.

 

The Kendal club has had a lot to preoccupy it off the field in the last couple of years as they have been trying to sell the Mint Bridge site for retail development, a situation all too familiar to Fylde. The £6M deal between the Club and developers Morbaine would have led to the building of a new ground on Oxenholme Road on the edge of the town. Planning permission has already been granted for the development of the new ground but this was stymied, at least for the time being, by the rejection of the Mint Bridge retail scheme by a government inspector.

On the field Kendal have struggled so far this season and are in 13th place in N2N with three wins and ten defeats. Injuries and unavailable players have weakened their campaign but they have strengthened their squad in the last couple of weeks so will pose a real danger to Fylde who have lost their last two away matches, at Luctonians & Westoe.

The Cumbrians have a squad made up by a mix of local players and a handful of overseas recruits. At the heart of their squad is a gritty, tough pack of forwards which rarely takes a collective backwards step. Veteran props Richard Harriman and Billy Coxon have been bulwarks of the side for a decade. They have recently been supplemented by the very highly rated and powerful 19st Kiwi prop Iain Hudson from Takapuna & North Harbour who is expected to make his debut against Fylde. Lock and new skipper Gareth Gore is a feisty ball winner and a fine line-out jumper although he's out of selection contention at the moment as he's recovering from knee surgery.

Their back row is rather different this season following the departure of flankers Charters to Preston & Hodgson to Penrith. Experienced former Otley openside Nathan Bland is an important recruit although he hasn't appeared since the end of October. However, a positive development is the return from long term injuries of flankers Craig Wilson and Gary Holmes, brother of Fylde's Alan, who will be competing for starting places in the backrow alongside another Kiwi, Peter Stevens, Joe Mallinson, Dan White and Mike Bowman, who returned to Mint Bridge in November.

Amongst the Kendal backline is the powerful duo of veteran former Sedgley Park South African centre Ian Voortman and popular Kiwi utility player Simon Mullholland who is back for a second spell at Mint Bridge and is currently leading try scorer with seven. Winger Jon Ladell has also scored many tries against Fylde and goal kicking centre or fly-half Mark Ireland will punish indisciplined play by the visitors as he is their leading points scorer with 127. A newcomer is 22 years old South African fly-half Kyle Peyper who came with a fine reputation from his Johannesburg club Union Bulldogs but who appears in recent weeks to have conceded the number 10 shirt to Ireland.

15 S Mulholland; 14 L Mercer, 13 I Voortman, 12 S Thomas, 11 J Ladell; 10 M Ireland, 9 W Voke; 1 B Coxon, 2 D Green, 3 I Hudson, 4 L Hayton, 5 J Robinson, 6 D White, 7 C Wilson, 8 J Mallinson. Replacements: 16 A Quarry, 17 M Houghton, 18 M Bowman, 19 D Lowther, 20 B Robinson.

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Fylde make four changes to their starting line-up compared with that which began against Morley last Saturday. Steve Collins comes in at fly-half with Richard Kenyon dropping back to full-back. Martin Wallwork partners Collins with Craig Aikman amongst the replacements. In the pack, Nick King returns at lock following illness and Grant Ferguson moves to blindside flanker for Josh Beaumont who is back at Durham University. Openside flanker is Mark Stephenson who replaces the injured Steve McGinnis.

On the bench, Tony Thoma has recovered from illness and returns to the squad covering the front row along with Tom Lavelle, and Sam Russell joins Aikman as a back replacement.

15 Richard Kenyon; 14 Nick Royle, 13 Stephen Briers, 12 Mike Waywell, 11 Oliver Brennand; 10 Steve Collins, 9 Martin Wallwork; 1 Alistair Livesey, 2 Jonny Roddam, 3 Peter Altham, 4 Paul Arnold, 5 Nick King, 6 Grant Ferguson, 7 Mark Stephenson, 8 Sam Beaumont (c). Replacements: 16 Tom Lavelle, 17 Tony Thoma, 18 Alistair Sutherland, 19 Craig Aikman, 20 Sam Russell.