Fylde Hawks 2nds 29 – 34 Lymm 2nds

NOWIRL CUP GROUP 2

Three weeks ago Lymm 2nds travelled to Fylde for a league fixture which ended in a comprehensive 88 – 21 defeat, despite being the better team in the 1st half, mainly due to a number of 1st team players turning out for Fylde owing to a 1st XV fixture cancellation.

To then draw Fylde in the 1st round of the NOWIRL Cup competition was therefore not a welcome result. However, a lot can happen in 3 weeks, and so it was. Lymm travelled with a young squad comprising mainly current and recent Senior Colts.

Things looked interesting during the warmup as Fylde seemed to have only 14 players but with 20 minutes to go before kick off 5 players turned up and introduced themselves to the Fylde team and started to warm up. Meanwhile Lymm’s number 10 Alex Mukherjee had to leave the field with an ankle injury and proceed to visit Blackpool A&E, (luckily just a sprained ankle).

Kick off and 4 of the ‘new’ Fylde players are on the bench. As in the game 3 weeks ago Lymm dominated and were soon on the score sheet. The domination continued throughout the 1st half and Lymm ended the half  12 – 24 ahead. It has to be said the busiest man on the pitch was the Lymm Physio patching up all and sundry throughout the half.

2nd half kick off and the 4 subs are now on the pitch, who are they one wondered. Well they were 5 Fijian 7-aside rugby players with the Fijian military on manueveres nearby, who had asked for a game. Boy could they run.

A mixture of their ability and Lymm slightly going off the boil saw Fylde fight back to take a converted try lead at 29 – 24. As is always the case the players you did not want the ball to go to were the Fijians, but it seemed every upfield kick or loose ball landed in their hands and forward they would rampage finding space where you thought none existed.

However with 10 minutes or so to go, Lymm suddenly took the game back into their hands and a penalty kick, followed by a converted try saw lymm go on to win 29 – 34. Was it the introduction of Matt the Physio into the 2nd row that made the difference, we will never know!

This was an excellent result and sets them up well for the next game v Burnage at home on the Saturday 15th April KO 3pm.

Lymm’s points came from tries by, Callum Morris x 2; Paddy Jennings x 2 and Jorge Reynolds – James Anderson kicked 3 conversions and a penalty.

Team:  1. Sohail Kakaie, 2. Hamish Scott-Heron, 3. Quinn Peers, 4. Ben Polec, 5. Adam Case, 6. Ryan Vanden, 7. Rory Riddel, 8. Paddy Jennings (c), 9. James Anderson, 10. Cal Morris, 11. Jorge Reynolds, Harry Reay, 13. Ed Dobbs, 14. Ryan Brown, 15. Dalton Frith, 16. Ben Cole, 17. Stu Hunter, 18. Matt Hill, 19. Alex Mukherjee