With both sides on the same points in third and fourth positions in the league, this was a must win match for both sides if they wanted to retain any realistic hopes of promotion, and in a tight game Rugby just shaded it to secure the vital victory.

With former Lion Dave Muckalt at number five for the visitors and Sam Beaumont at seven, watched by his father Bill, Fylde started brightly, turning over a couple of Lion’s rucks and embarking on a number of pick and drives which proved very effective throughout the match.

Fylde opened the scoring with a penalty by John Armstrong when Lions were penalised for offside in front of the posts on their 22 metre line. Lions responded from a scrum in their own 22 when the ever alert Toby Handley spotted a gap on the blind side. He scampered up the line and slipped the ball to Michael Rust to carry on the attack. Alex Nash combined to feed the backs and the ball reached fullback James Hawken who was hauled down on the visitor’s 22 and a likely try scoring opportunity was lost. Rugby kept up the pressure, however, and Hawken evened up the score with a penalty again awarded for offside.

Matt Goode seized on a loose pass to set up another attack but the visitors defended well to prevent a score. A lovely dummy and run from Pete Glackin released Michael Rust on another strong run and when the visitors were penalised for offside at the ruck, Hawken converted from near the touchline for a 6-3 lead with five minutes of the half remaining. Following a penalty, Fylde had a lineout on Rugby’s 5 metre line and almost reached the try line with a rolling maul, but their attempts were scuppered when they were deemed to have obstructed the home defenders.

Ade Hales replaced Michael Rust at the start of the second half for Rugby. Fylde again started the half strongly and when the ball was dropped by their backs, Matt Goode booted the ball upfield. The visiting fullback kicked the ball straight back to Matt and some lovely interplay involving Glackin, Handley and Hales led to Paul Thompson breaking to Fylde’s 22. With supporting players either side the pass went astray and a certain try went begging. In the ensuing chase the referee pulled a hamstring and had to be replaced by one of the touch judges. A high tackle on Ade Hales resulted in a penalty for Rugby and James Hawken slotted the kick to increase the lead to 9-3. A strong run from the younger Beaumont led to a ruck to the left of the Lions posts and Sam Simpson picked up and crashed over for a try to Fylde which was converted by Armstrong to give the visitors a 10-9 lead.

Rugby responded immediately and won a penalty in front of the posts when hooker Alex Moffat was penalised for killing the ball. The acting referee dispatched the culprit to the bin and would have shown a yellow card if the original referee had not walked off with them in his pocket. Hawks converted to regain the lead for the home side at 12-10. Matt Goode then attempted a drop goal but his kick drifted just wide of the uprights. From the resulting drop out Paul Thompson took the ball and set up a ruck. Toby Handley spun the ball to Glackin. Hales received the ball on the touchline and despite the attention of two defenders in front of him he skated through for an excellent touchdown which was reminiscent of the scintillating rugby played by Lions at the beginning of the season. Hawks converted with a superb kick from the touchline to increase the lead to 19-10.

Fylde were not going to give up without a fight and the league’s top try scorer Nick Royle who had had a quiet game up till then somehow squirmed over for an unconverted try to reduce the deficit to 19-15.

This week we all got a reminder that it still winter but, with a promised rise in temperatures, the prospects for the Lions game on Saturday look favourable. The visitors will be Fylde who narrowly beat the Lions at their Woodlands Memorial Ground in September. Local supporters will be hoping that Rugby’s backs will regain some of their attacking form such as was seen earlier in the season, and that there will be many more scores (mostly Rugby’s of course) than there were in the last game. That aggregate score of 10 was the lowest for a 1^st XV game at Webb Ellis Road for 20 years.

Fylde have 11 wins and a draw out of 16 games played. Four games were lost to Preston (A), Darlington MP (A), Tynedale (A) and Blaydon (H). The draw was against Tynedale at home. Wins came against Hull (H), Rugby (H), West Park (A), Preston (H), Cleckheaton (A), Darlington MP (H), Orrell (H), Darlington (A), Macclesfield (A), Morley (H) and Leicester Lions (H). They are fourth in the league table, equal on points with Rugby, but with a points difference deficit of ten

Fylde and Rugby have contested ten league games since 1989 with six wins to Rugby and four to Fylde. An indication of the change in the respective strengths of the teams is that, while Rugby won the first five, they have lost the last three.

As Coach Mark Ellis quite rightly said in a recent press interview, if the Lions lose this game their promotion challenge will be all but over. So there is every reason to get the basics right on Saturday and to avoid those things that so often unnecessarily give away positions and points.