Fylde Vandals 46 v Norwich Union 26

The Vandals took advantage of a weekend break in their league campaign to entertain the touring Norwich Union team in a 1 o’clock kick off before watching the 1^stXV subject the Fylde faithful to a last minute nail-biting win for the second week in succession.

Splendid spring weather and a hard ground meant moulded studs were the order of the day. The largest squad of the season was 26 strong spanning several generations as it ranged from 18 year old Andy Latus to 59 year old Howard Monk, or so he says, I’m sure he has been 59 for the last 5 seasons. Special mention should be made of Mark Evans who graced us with his silky skills; his first Vandals start of the year means he has played for all five senior sides this season, what an outstanding clubman he is. The pleasant day encouraged various vampish Vandalettes and a motley crew of other early birds to turn up and the sizeable squad and home support were supplemented by some well lubricated and highly vocal non-playing tourists which all created a good atmosphere for this unofficial curtain raiser.

The only area where the Vandals were a little short was in the prop department meaning Brian Cardwell had to pack down and as he was meant to be officiating he had had to hand the refereeing duties to your match reporter, meaning I was spared the headache of rotating the huge bench. Thanks go to Kiwi Bruce for the match note-taking and his lad Kiwi Josh for water boy and kicking tee duties. Newcomer Mike Hewitson was welcomed to the fold even if he did look a tad out of place among the baldy brigade with his long bushy ponytail. Usually we are pretty much ‘no hair and no flair’ in the Vandals, we may have to invest in some Vidal Sassoon shampoo and conditioner from the tour fund if Mike becomes a regular in the squad. 

Fylde started like a house on fire and ran the ball with kicking very much a last resort as befits a touring game. On 5 minutes a series of drives and quick ball released Richard Mason for the first try, he then played link man 2 minutes later to put Pete Acton in for another score. Ed Mahon missed both conversions but it didn’t look like kicks were going to matter as the Vandals led 10-0 after only 7 minutes. However, the plucky tourists had started to run their ill-advised early lunch of Stella Artois and gin & tonic out of their system and started to compete in a meaningful fashion. They forced a turnover, broke the tackle in midfield and scored under the posts, converting to make it 10-7. Fylde’s early dominance dissipated, not helped by skipper Swindells feeling his hamstring tweak again and leaving the field. What initially looked like a good score by Satch was ruled out as Mr Honesty Howard Monk alerted the referee to a forward pass earlier in the move. On 18 minutes another missed tackle in the home defence led to a converted score by the tourists and suddenly Fylde were behind 14-10.  Multiple changes by Fylde ensued and they got back on track on 20 minutes with a try by Hodgy in the corner to lead by a single point 15-14.

On 23 minutes the home team extended their lead. Gary Andrews has been a changed man since he returned from his broken ankle and started wearing special lead-lined super-power boots and shortly after entering the fray he ran a lovely angle and was all arms and elbows as he careered unstoppably to the line from 40 metres out. Adam Kerr finally slotted a Fylde conversion and things were looking more comfortable at 22-14. Not for long however as Norwich made sure another missed first up tackle was punished by a try and it was 22-19. Back came Fylde and after a nice run by Scotty who was lurking in midfield Liam McCartan sloped in for another try to make it 27-19 at the break after an exciting half of open running rugby.

The second half was scoreless for 10 minutes until Scotty, no doubt misguidedly encouraged by his link work in the first half tried a speculative long pass in midfield that was picked off by the Norwich winger. He desperately looked around for a support player and finding none there took it upon himself to stagger the 50 yards to the try line himself and it was back to a single point game at 27-26. It was all now in the balance and depended on who got the next score. Hodgy sportingly helped the threadbare tourists out by changing sides to replace an injured player then unsportingly and promptly gave a penalty away for handling in a ruck then a further 10 yards for some choice language which upset the over-sensitive whistle blower.

Despite Hodgy hindering their best efforts Norwich soon pressed the home line again. For once Fylde had to revert to old school sensible rugby, after a good steal close to the Fylde line Patrick T kicked downfield. Young Andy Latus, looking like a human whippet, chased hard and a favourable bounce popped into his hands. Now it was just a case of whether he could outstrip the last defender who just happened to be our own turncoat for the second half Mr Beard-face himself Steve Hodgkins. Well on this occasion the long arm of the law just wasn’t long enough, Hodgy flailed and floundered like a man trying to flag the last taxi of the night down but it was all in vain as the whippersnapper evaded his grasp and raced fully 60 yards to score under the posts. To be fair to the cheeky copper he was giving 24 years and about the same amount of stones away and despite that nearly snaffled the young rascal. I am reliably informed that the try was not only Andy’s first for the Vandals but the first of his career, congratulations are therefore due, let’s hope it’s the first of many.

The conversion by Kerr made it 34-26 and Fylde now had the ascendancy and went on to finish strongly as the blood alcohol levels took their toll on the tourists. Karl Harrison was competing strongly as usual but was falling foul of the eagle eyed ref who it has to be said had an excellent game even if I say so myself! After being pinged 3 times for handling on the deck Karl then did what he does best , superbly turning over the ball in the tackle and appearing later in the move to burst through the away defence, draw the last man and give the scoring pass to Patrick T who went under the posts. Elder brother Sean had not got on the spreadsheet yet so like the glory grabber he is he drop-kicked the conversion to make it 41-26 and a minute later Dave Storey broke out wide and ran in from 30 metres to round off the scoring and make the final score 46-26.

This was a typically entertaining tour game with surprisingly good skills on show and the 12 tries were enjoyed by players and spectators alike, Afterwards everybody was able to enjoy a long afternoon of socialising and first XV rugby afterwards, a great day all round.

Squad: Cardwell B, Cardwell C, Tittley, Scott, Stead, Todd, Williams, Hewitson, Cottam, Mason, Hodgkiss,  Townsend P, Townsend S, Swindells, Mahon, Acton, Storey, Andrews, McCartan, Satchell, Latus, Monk, Tankard, Kerr, Stanier, Evans

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League 4 North update – with Wigan losing at Hawcoat Park the Vandals now need just 10 points to clinch the second promotion spot irrespective of what anybody else does in their remaining games. With 4 points for a win and 1 point for a loss 2 wins from their last 4 games will see them promoted and but for their early season 6 point deduction they would have already have been too far ahead to catch. It looks like our fate is sealed.