Hoppers miserable start to league rugby in 2010 continued with a poor performance against local rivals Fylde. While no-one can fault the player’s commitment the cohesion that produced some wonderful rugby before the extended Christmas break was not there. The match lived up to its billing by being a feisty and hard fought contest throughout but only one side showed the spark needed for victory.
Things started well for Hoppers when Alex Zavallis-Roebuck landed a second minute penalty from 40 yards after Fylde were guilty of a scrum infringement. Hoppers held the lead for ten minutes until Tom Barlow levelled the score with his second attempt at goal after hitting the post with the first.
Shortly after Hoppers should have reclaimed the lead when Mark Rigbye, who was excelled at the set piece all day, stole a Fylde line out on the Hoppers 22. Tom Ball’s high box kick was chased well by Sean Taylor and Tom Hughes who kicked ahead down to the try line and but for a bounce of the ball would have scored. Hoppers did nothing from the resulting 5m scrum and even when they charged down a clearing kick they allowed Fylde full back Mike Waywell to miraculously escape the pressure in the in goal area to boot the ball to safety.
Fylde scored their opening try just minutes later, after a good set piece move took them deep into the 22 a turn over looked to have snuffed out the danger but the clearing kick failed to find touch, due to a spectacular effort from wing Matt Gargett and when Alex Hurst saw a huge area of open space on the left flank he had too much pace for the covering defence and raced over to score. Things went from bad to worse for Hoppers as during the play wing James Williams was seriously injured and was stretched off the field.
Hoppers tried in vain to get back into the game but costly handling errors and a lack of precision cost them dearly and it was Fylde who scored again to stretch their lead before the half. From a line out on the 22 they moved the ball quickly into the midfield and first Barlow and then Jack Ward found huge holes in the defence with Ward crossing by the posts. Barlow added the conversion to give the home side a 15-3 half time lead.
The game was effectively won and lost in the opening ten minutes of the second half. Hoppers failed to collect the restart and afforded great field position and a scrum to Fylde in the opening seconds. After a couple of phases Fylde were able to create space and an overlap finished with Waywell crossing in the corner. Hoppers responded within minutes when they finally produced some quick ball from a turn over and Zavallis-Roebuck got onto the front foot and jinked his way through a disorganised defence to score by the posts, he converted his own try and Hoppers were back in the game.
However, Hoppers again made a mess of the resulting restart and gifted Fylde possession and territory. Fylde were able to recycle the ball quickly and once again put a player into a huge gap, this time prop Adam Lewis had no one around him and was able to stroll in under the posts to secure the try bonus point. An incident straight after the try resulted in a brawl that saw Jordan Pearson and Fylde’s Alex Hurst receive a yellow card.
Fylde had one more try in them, when midway through the half they reacted quickly from a turn over to put Gargett into space down the right wing to complete the rout and seal the win.
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