Rugby Union: Rosslyn Park come unstuck at Fylde... again

There were few crumbs of comfort for the Park faithful after a lacklustre performance from a much-changed team, and they dropped to seventh in the National League One table as a consequence.

Fylde made much the brighter start, forcing the visitors to concede early penalties, and took an early lead through a consequent lineout in the fifth minute.

Lock Todd Prisk took the catch and was forced over in the corner.

The home side had a clear edge at this stage, but some smart play by Park centre Matt Hawke evened things up when he penetrated the home defensive line to lay on a try for skipper Adam Bellamy.

Fly half Brett Heron narrowly missed the conversion for 5-5 on 15 minutes.

Things went from bad to worse for Park however, conceding a penalty at the scrum and then offending in front of the posts.

Fylde made the pressure tell with another try in the corner, this time from centre Ralph Dowds on 23 minutes.

Park tried to stay in contention and were rewarded with a penalty from Brett Herron two minutes later for 10-8, only for Fylde’s other centre, Scott Rawlings, to score – again in the corner – following an attacking five metre scrum on 29 minutes.

In there somewhere: Sam Shire touches down for Rosslyn Park

Home fly half Chris Johnson missed his third conversion attempt so it was 15-8.

Park fired themselves up and for the first time put some consistent pressure on the home side.

A good run from Adam Field, at full-back, led to a penalty which was hoofed to the corner, and a further penalty saw Fylde number eight Evan Stewart sent to the bin.

Park extracted full advantage with Sam Shires going over by the posts, converted by Herron to tie the scores at 15-15 on 35 minutes.

Park surged back on the attack and were stopped by Fylde centre Rawlings lying on the ball. He was also yellow-carded.

From the 5m scrum Park gained a penalty, kicked to the corner and following the throw Ed Milne burst over for 20-15 on the half-time whistle.

Fylde must have wondered how they were losing a match they had mostly dominated. From a Park perspective it looked as if they had weathered the storm and could build on their control of the last 10 minutes.

Ed Milne

There followed a wretched 40 minutes of rugby from Park, having appartently no answer to a team that had lost its previous four matches, but here ran up 21 unanswered points.

Despite being short on personnel Fylde took the game to the visitors. Left wing Owen Brennand was tackled just short of the line, and an alert Jack Gash touched down behind his own line to prevent another score.

Park also gained a let off when Fylde were pinged for "crossing" following an attacking scrum.

But Park could not stem the tide when a splendid move ended with Dowd grabbing his second try on 50 minutes, Johnson converting for 22-20.

Fylde were now all over Park, who seemed to have no answer, and a yellow card for Will Bowley only added to Park’s woes.

Replacement Phil Mills caught the visiting defence napping following a quickly-taken throw on 64 minutes, converted for 29-20.

Any hope of a late comeback – which looked unlikely anyway – was extinguished when home scrum half Ryan de la Harpe went over with three minutes left. Johnson converted for 36-20.

Bellamy scores Park's first try

Defence time