Jamie Albinson

FYLDE                          18
SEDGLEY PARK           53
 
Friendly
 
A SECOND-HALF Jamie Albinson hat-trick along with an Adam Newton brace put paid to Fylde’s comeback and guaranteed Sedgley a second pre-season success, this time over their old Red Rose rivals.

Fielding an experimental front row comprising Sale Sharks loanee Danny Birchall making his Park debut, prop-turned-hooker Gareth ‘Tank ‘Roberts in the middle and anchored by the mighty presence on Petrus Du Plessis at tight-head, the Tigers didn’t have it all their own way in the forwards.

In the backs it was generally a different matter. Fed by Chris Wilkinson in the first half and Jamie Albinson in the second and featuring a centre pairing of recent signing Freeman Payne and Chris Briers, Sedgley found themselves taking a sixth-minute lead.

Pressure from the kick-off had pinned Fylde inside their own 22 and from a five-metre lineout Skurr drove the ball over for the opening score.

Eight minutes later Steve Nutt chopped through the Fylde defence before off-loading to former Waterloo team-mate Freeman Payne who raced to the posts for try number two.

On 19 minutes Briers fed De Jager who in turn sent Jan Van DeVenter on his way to the corner to make it 17-3, after Fylde had managed to convert a ninth-minute penalty.

Fylde then stepped up their forward effort and on 29 minutes showed their power up front by driving over from a five-metre lineout.

But within two minutes the Tigers hit back; the ball was driven into contact following a good lineout catch and was them run laterally before Tom Albinson’s bursting run saw him to over by the posts for Nutt to convert and make it 24-8 at the break.

Fylde stepped up the physical approach in the second half and gave the Sedgley pack a tougher 40 minutes. However, they could not stop Jamie Albinson from grabbing an impressive hat-trick of tries.

The first arrived four minutes after the restart when a timely off-load from Payne sent the blond Number 9 on his way to the Fylde posts. The second saw him snipe over the line from the base of a successful five-metre scrum seven minutes later.

However, from the restart Sedgley allowed Fylde to gather the ball and an unchallenged race to the line saw the home side touch down, before Albinson popped up again off a rolling maul to spin over for his third try.

At that point the game got a bit niggly with second-half replacement Dave Livesey being replaced by Paul Keys in order to have a few stitches inserted in a facial cut.

Fylde then hit back claiming another touch down off a successful five-metre lineout catch-and-drive, before Sedgley ran in two more tries in the last 10 minutes courtesy of flanker Adam Newton, both off catch-and-drives.

In essence, although the back row worked hard the set pieces at times struggled, while in the backs one or two were guilty of hanging onto the ball too long.

Danny Birchall had a solid debut, the return of Chris Briers added to the Tigers offensive arsenal while Gareth Robert’s move to hooker should provide some strength in depth at Number 2.

This Friday (August 24), Sedgley travel to Grove Park to take on National Division Two side Manchester in the final pre-season fixture prior to the big kick off.
 
SEDGLEY PARK: De Jager, T.Albinson (Monsell 69), Briers, Payne, Van DeVenter (Largan 69), Nutt, Wilkinson (J.Albinson 40), Birchall (Duckworth 73), Roberts (Roddam 40), Du Plessis, Fourie, Townson (Livesey 45 – Keys 60), Newton, Ponton, Skurr.