Determined Fleet get their reward

After being let down throughout the week with unavailabilities, this could have been a disaster for the second team. With the third team having to be called off due to low numbers, the second team was able to select a full contingent for their away trip to Lancaster. Some early morning scares occurred though with late cry offs, no shows and having to get the returning Callum Fyall out of bed wasn't the best start.

Uncharacteristically though, Fleetwood started the stronger team and really took the game to Vale and spent the majority of the game playing in their half. There were some rare Vale attacks, but good defending kept them at bay.

Fleetwood scored first, as Sam Pook threw his first ever straight line out. Fleet looked to start a driving maul, but Skipper Foden noticed that the Home side were not contesting. Fearing conceding a penalty, Foden dragged Flanker Blunn out of the maul. The ball made its' way to No. 8 Jackson, who scored near the posts. Conversion missed. 0-5.

Shortly after this, Fleetwood were rewarded with a penalty in front of the sticks, which Jackson made. 0-8. Unfortunately during the kick, Jackson injured his knee, forcing him off the pitch for the remainder of the game.

The away side kept building the pressure, leading to the other Flanker Langton spotting a gap and scoring for the second try of the game. Conversion missed. 0 -13.

The Green and Gold's should of had a 3rd try on the stroke of half time. Replacement Gregson got the ball in space, with two men on his shoulder. A simple 3 on 2 passing routine would of given the away side the score. Gregson elected to kick the ball for his outside men to chase, but unfortunately it was too hard a kick. This earned Gregson the 'Prestigious Dick of the Day Award'. Which is a shame as he had a fine game otherwise.

From the resulting 22 dropout, Vale went deep. Fleet failed to clear the ball and Vale scored try in the corner. Conversion missed 5-13.

Half Time Score: 5 - 13

Fleetwood started brightly to the second half by earning another penalty in front of the sticks, which Pearce kicked over. 5-16

Shortly after Scrum Half Kirton found himself in a bit of bother as he had been deemed by the official to have made an illegal tackle, and was forced to spend 10 minutes in the bin.

Not to dwell on anything, Fleet got back to work with some bruising pick and goes from the forwards. Once the Vale defensive line was in enough disarray, stand in 9 Stelfox popped the ball to Pearce, who looked up, side stepped his defender and scored under the posts. Conversion scored. 5-23

Joe Kirton quickly got back into the swing of things after his breather. Fortunately, the ref didn't see his twenty knock-ons on the base of the ruck and was allowed to run half the length of the pitch to score in the corner. Conversion missed. 5-28

The lads, probably confident in victory, allowed Vale one last attack. It was a well worked score for the Lancastrians, as they worked Fleetwood around the corner to the touch line and then exploded towards the opposite to score in the corner. Conversion missed. 10-28

Final Score: 10-28

I was very happy with the performances by every player. Every single person put the graft in and got what they craved out of the afternoon.

The Forwards bullied and dominated periods of the game with strong carries and work rate. The scrum functioned very well, some of the stronger performances coming from, Gregson, Wood, Langton and Watson. Younger forwards O'Hara and Blunn continue to show good improvement.

In the backs Kirton made some strong tackles against some big boys, Pearce linked well with the Centre partnership of Stelfox and a returning Fyall, who had very good day bullying his opposite number.

There was also a second team debut for Simon Kilburn, who has been putting some strong performances in for the 3's.

Man Of The Match

MOTM was a hard choice this week, every lad who put on a shirt could have made a claim to the accolade. I put it to the boys to ask their opinions, and once the silly suggestions were out of the way (Lads nominating others who didn't play and Pook nominating himself), the most occurring name was Fly Half Josh Pearce. This was hard earned, Josh made all his tackles, scored a good try and took over the kicking duties ,after Jackson went off injured, with confidence.

The Weekly Sam Pook Report

This week Samuel had the best game of rugby I've ever seen him play. His line outs were straight... well for him. There was a huge swinging arm, a severe case of white line fever and some pretty terrible banter. It seems that weeks of negative reinforcement is working at least for his Rugby.

Final Score: Vale of Lune 3s 10 v 28 Fleetwood 2s

Tries: Jackson; Langton; Pearce; Kirton.
Penalties: Jackson; Pearce.
Conversions: Pearce

Next Week

Next week, Fleetwood will be at home to De La Salle 2's. Melbourne Avenue, 14:15 KO.

Squad: 15. Swindlehurst; 14. Kilburn; 13. Fyall; 12. Stelfox; 11. Birks; 10. Pearce; 9. Kirton; 1. O'Hara; 2. Pook; 3. Foden; 4. Watson; 5. Wood; 6. Blunn; 7. Langton; 8. Jackson; 16. Gregson.