This home fixture unfortunately could not be played at the windmill ground due to the ever on going building work so was played at a local ground in the area. With the game at Fylde’s ground they thought that they would have the advantage and walk all over the Thornton team, TC however fielded one of its strongest sides that it has had and with an army on the bench they were unstoppable.

Fylde kicked off and instantly applied pressure to TC causing the first ten minutes of the game to be played in the TC half and getting ever closer to the try line. Straight away on the defensive, Thornton dug deep and persisted through the pressure to acquire possession from a scrum. The Fylde pack, relying on their one man scrum machine, got drove back to allow Michael Docherty at eight to pick and go, drawing in the back rows and fly-half he passed outside him to Jack McFarlane to continue infield. Coming up to the half way line Jack passed the ball out to Pete Ashton on the wing who danced his way around his opposite number and popped the ball back up to Jack inside him. Proceeding down the wing now facing the fullback Jack ran straight at the young lad and sat him down, showing that he’s not just a fancy ‘pretty boy’ back. Amazingly the Fylde back line covered across and brought Jack down just short of the line, and without any support they won a turnover. However, the Fylde possession didn’t last long and Thornton were awarded a penalty in front of the posts. The trusty boot of Sean Donnelly sent the ball soaring through the uprights. Thornton 3-0.

From poor discipline in the ruck from Thornton and “experienced” Fylde players they managed to win a penalty in TC’s half, fortunately the kick went wide and the score remained the same. The next play resulted in multiple turnovers and ended with a deep kick into Thornton’s 22, Leon Mason was there and waiting. The kick was chased down and pressure was applied to Leon but his trade mark dummy kick fooled the fullback allowing Leon to run it up. It wasn’t long before Thornton was back in Fylde’s half, once again from another brilliant backs play off the back of the scrum. TC were dominating in all aspects of the game apart from one, the ruck, Fylde’s “experienced” players knew the little tricks of the trade and were getting away with it all game so far. Until now, the referee gave Thornton a penalty well in kicking range. Jack tapped the ball quickly, noticing space out wide he told the ball hungry forwards to get lost, and passed the ball out to Dan Powell. Space on the wing Dan sees the line, and only the line as he dove over it to put Thornton 8 points up. Unable to convert the score remained TC 8-0.

Thornton made their usual simple mistakes and gave away too many penalties and possession back to Fylde, keeping Fylde in the game. They kicked to the corner from a penalty and won the resulting lineout, using their one and only trick up their sleeves, the driving maul utilising the one man scrummaging machine they ploughed over the line. Unable to convert, the score was TC 8-5.

As the first half came close to an end Thornton found themselves with a lineout in the middle of the pitch. The lifters, thanking the gods this week as Ryan Haywood was thrown up with ease compared to the usual heavier lumps. Thornton won clean ball and was shipped out down the lines to Dave Snelson who squeezed through the defensive line to be brought down by a tap tackle. The ref was on the ball now and penalised Fylde for killing the ball. With the quick tap the ball was passed out to Wayne Daws to crash it up and managed to acquire another penalty. The tiring Fylde team weren’t expecting another quick play and being all bunched up in the middle the ball was passed to Dan Powell who drew the centre in and passed the ball out to the young Chris Jackson who stepped back inside and beat the fullback to the line. Thornton led now 15-5.

Shortly into the second half Fylde showed their persistency and capitalised on Thornton mistakes. The story throughout the season was Thornton allowed the opposition to get back into the game and get on the front foot. The Fylde centre that caused a bit of havoc in the previous fixture broke his way through to score under the posts bringing the scores to 15-12 to Thornton, just.

The game restarted with a high kick to the Thornton forwards which was knocked on giving Fylde an opportunity to win the ball back. Even with Fylde’s one man scrum machine, Thornton drove the pack backwards and won the ball. With another successful linkup between Michael and Jack gave the backs quick ball. This time before the ball got to the wing Stephen Hatch came bursting through the centres to be tackled by the fullback. The scrambled Fylde defence struggled to get back and set in line which allowed the Thornton pack to pile into the ruck and secure the ball. The ball came out to Sean Donnelly and he found himself in a 5 on 1 against a dumbfounded winger. Nobody knows what came over him but he decided not to pass and to take it back into the hungry Fylde pack. Fortunately Baz Tucker secured the ruck (yes, you read that correctly, Baz entered a ruck), and one of the forwards assumed the scrum-half duties and passed the ball out to Jack where he forced his way through a gap to score. Sean converted the try to bring the score to 22-12 to Thornton.

A deep restart from Fylde gave the Thornton backs time to respond even with the pressure from the charge down, Sean kicked over the defensive line and found touch. The ball was knocked on in the lineout and gave Fylde the ball. Fylde hooked the ball back but with the Thornton pack forcing the scrum backwards, this put the scrum half on the back foot, he passed out to his fly-half who failed to pass to the centre. Along came Dan Powell to scoop up the loose ball and passed out wide to Pat Meehan. The Fylde winger was nowhere to be found but Pat faced a mean looking back row, backing himself he went for the corner and ran around the slow forward to score. The conversion kick curled left away from the posts. This brought the score to TC 27-12 to Fylde.

The unfortunate cancelation of the third team/ casual’s game gave Thornton a squad of 30 not everyone got the game time they wanted, however with the aim to get everybody game time regardless of ability as everyone deserves their chance to shine, (as that is why we all come down on a Saturday and pay our subs). Just remember that we are a team that plays rugby together so show respect to each other, the referee, the opposition and yourselves. We play RUGBY not football.

So on that note let’s look towards next week where we have a coach supporting the 1st team that needs filling and a 3rd /casual’s game at home. Get in touch if you fancy either one.