The New Year has seen an indifferent start for the Saracens as all the momentum from before the Christmas break had seemingly been lost with a loss at home to a fired up, strong De La Salle 2nd team. There were though glimpses of the way the Saracens had played at the tail end of 2011 in a hard fought loss away at Vale of Lune 3rds in 8inches of mud. Special mention must go to Brian Cardwell for stepping into the breach at prop in that game, making a fine debut at the tender age of 53, after a certain member of the Saracens had gone AWOL!!!... Brian has again added to the ever growing list of names that have appeared for the Saracens this season, over 90! 

However, Saturday 21st January 2012 saw Fylde Saracens turn out a strong side against Preston Grasshoppers 4th team and put in a very fine performance which included six tries shared between Fylde’s backline.

Thanks this week go to a late addition at prop with the loan of George Hunt from the Vandals, and also to both Chris Clack and Jamie Blakey, who answered a very late notice call to help out the Vikings over at Leigh due to a shortage of players for Sam Bensky’s men.

The playing conditions were perfect for some traditional Fylde running rugby and the lads didn’t disappoint. At times the backs and forwards combined excellently to produce great passages of play in the first half, only to be thwarted by the odd final pass.

The pack of forwards performed particularly well in the loose and the whole team was bolstered by a few welcome UCLAN faces in Ryan Tweed, Dan Scott, Alex Redfern, Adam Murphy and Jack Thomas. Grant Armstrong helped out in the back row with a typically fine performance. John Green also made a welcome return to the number 9 berth, keeping the forwards working well and provided the backs with some good quick ball.

The front row of Hunt, Cardwell and Cook had a competitive game in the scrum and put themselves about in the loose. The second row had a different look to it with Jamie Griffin coming in from the Wanderers and Nathan Crane moving from his preferred position of No.8.  Both added so much to the lineout and the loose, winning great ball, giving the backs the opportunity to show their flair with sprightly Mark Evans orchestrating things from fly half.

The first half was a typical nip and tuck tight affair with Fylde just about coming off the better of the two sides, plenty of problems at the breakdown meant the referee had a difficult task to not penalise everything but he contributed well by allowing the game to flow. First half tries were scored by Adam Murphy, Dan Scott, Rich Whiteside and a great long range effort by Alex Redfern after an attack down the left hand side from deep.

Half-time saw Fylde in control with a scoreline of Saracens 24, Preston Grasshoppers 4ths 7.

The half-time talk saw the lads collectively come together, and observing that a little more patience on the ball would see the team convert more chances and put the game to bed.

Captain Neil Lightowler also promised to bring all three subs on as long as Fylde scored first. However, it was Hoppers who managed to first cross the try-line, and they started to gain some momentum.

However, Rich Whiteside again showed his quality by grabbing a great try from distance. He cut a fine angle into the backline, receiving the pass from Evans and outran the cover defence to score under the posts allowing Lightowler a rare and easy conversion .

This try signalled the start of the substitutions with Joe Davies coming on for Lightowler. Five minutes later Adam Murphy came off following the score of his second try,through a neat kick over the top of the opposition backline by Mark Evans. Murphy was substituted by Lee Schofield. The final swap came shortly afterwards with Redfern coming off and James Leeming going on in the centres for his Fylde debut after a few years away from rugby for his former Hoppers club.

Final Score - Fylde Saracens 38 Preston Grasshoppers 4ths 12

This was the Saracen’s second win over Hoppers 4ths after a narrow win away earlier in the season.

Scorers: - Adam Murphy 2 tries, Dan Scott 1 try , Alex Redfern 1 try, Rich Whiteside 2 tries & 3 conversions, Neil Lightowler 1 conversion.

Team: - 15. Whiteside, 14. Murphy, 13. Thomas, 12. Lightowler, 11. Redfern, 10. Evans, 9. Green, 8. Scott, 7. Tweed, 6. Armstrong, 5. Griffin, 4. Crane, 3. Hunt, 2. Cardwell, 1. Everett. Subs: 16. Davies, 17. Schofield, 18. Leeming

Let’s hope for more of the same this week as we face Sedgley Park 3s at home, weather permitting!!!