Fylde welcome National Two Waterloo to the Woodlands for a semi-final of the Lancashire Cup tomorrow, Easter Saturday, KO 3pm.
The last time the two clubs played each other at 1st team level was in a pre-season friendly at the Woodlands in August 2006. The winners of the tie will play either Sedgley Park or West Park in the Final, at a date to be determined. The Club hopes that there will be a big Easter crowd at the Woodlands to cheer on the home side.
Waterloo is one of Fylde's oldest Lancashire rivals, the two clubs having competed against each other at 1st team and lower levels for generations. Whilst 'Loo has achieved somewhat more success over their long and distinguished history, including the production of some 40 international players, the two clubs have both had their share of the roller coaster that is professional league rugby over the past 12 years.
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For most of the last decade 'Loo has been at level 2 in the RFU league hierarchy. But they had two bad years just past the Millennium. Whilst Fylde were in National Two in 2002/3, 'Loo had by then slipped down to N3N, or RFU level four. They stayed there until 2003/4 when they began to rise up the leagues again. In 2005/6 they earned promotion back to National One but they struggled to survive at that level and finished bottom of the table.
So 'Loo are now back in N2 and have had a mixed 2007/8 campaign to date. They were comfortably in the top half of the table until a run of six defeats in 2008 somewhat derailed them. Saturday's 30-8 win over Wharfedale arrested this decline.
This week will be a rather important one in the Club's history. An AGM will be held to decide the Club's future; specifically whether to stay at their well established Blundellsands ground or to sell up and develop a new stadium elsewhere in the vicinity. Whilst National League attendance figures are notoriously approximate, it's interesting to note that Fylde have had 36% more people watching them this season than 'Loo, albeit in a lower division.
Fylde now have a number of former Waterloo players in their ranks. Fly-half Steve Nutt, scrum-half Craig Aikman, back Neil Hunter, hooker Chris Tyms and prop Darren Clark have all played for periods at Blundellsands. For different reasons, only Clark, who is one of the replacements, will be lining up against their old colleagues on Saturday.
New Head Coach this season, Chris O'Callaghan, has built a competitive squad which has suffered somewhat through injuries to iconic players such as skipper and prop Martin O'Keefe. Stars of an accomplished backline include Spanish international scrum-half Pablo Feijoo, goal kicking no 10 Alex Davies (Sale Jets & North Otago), centers Jason Duffy (ex-Sedgley Park) and Nicola Mazzucato, Lancashire stalwart winger Neil Kerfoot and fullback Jonny Lowden who contemplated joining Fylde at the beginning of last season.
Their pack features powerful prop Robert O'Donnell, dominating former Boroughmuir, Edinburgh, Borders & Udine lock Alastair Davidson, South African no 8 David York and flanker Alex Shaw (Sale Jets & ex-Macclesfield)..
Depending on training and any injury checks, Fylde make eleven changes to the 19 selected for the Morley game last Saturday. 19 year old backs Lewis Boyd and Jonny Walmsley feature along side fellow 19 year old Mike Waywell who scored a brace of tries against Morley. The experienced phalanx of Martin Wallwork, John Armstrong, David Wiseman & Richard Kenyon make up the rest of the backline.
In the forwards, highly promising Cumbrian prop Andrew Irving returns alongside another of the standout Wanderers performers this season, back five player Rob Hollingum who makes his senior debut. New South African forward Getty Schinkle gets his first chance to start a game following his impressive cameo performance against Morley. Hooker Chris Tyms is cup tied and misses the game.
UCLAN youngsters Adam Slaughter (flanker) and Mark Edwards (fly-half) are joined by the very dangerous winger Matt Hughes. Hughes, aka 'Psycho', has returned to the Club for the second half of the season following a few years away. He made five 1st team appearances in 2004/5 and scored two tries in his first spell at the Woodlands.
15 Mike Waywell; 14 Lewis Boyd, 13 Richard Kenyon, 12 David Wiseman, 11 Jonny Walmsley; 10 John Armstrong, 9 Martin Wallwork; 1 Sam Simpson, 2 Alan Holmes, 3 Andrew Irving, 4 Dylan O'Grady, 5 Roger Banks(c), 6 Rob Hollingum, 7 Sam Beaumont, 8 Getty Schinkel.
Replacements: 16 Chris Lowden, 17 Darren Clark, 18 Nick King, 19 Adam Slaughter, 20 Matt Hughes, 21 Mark Edwards.
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