By Brandon Reeves
Huddersfield brought the curtain down on their home season in entertaining style with a bonus point 45-33 victory to go third in the table and within six points of the second-placed Chester with two games to go.
On what was Ladies day at the club, and a magnificently sunny spring afternoon, ‘Field really turned on the afterburners despite going 14-0 down early on.
Six tries on the day did the damage to put an effective end to Fylde’s season while giving Huddersfield themselves an outside chance of breaking in to the top two.
Fylde raced into an early lead with a Harlan Corrie brace and two Greg Smith extras.
The back-row’s scores were near identical as both times he burst from the edge of the home side’s 22 with line breaks to get by the posts.
Slighted by Fylde’s early incision, Field bounced back, and then some.
Fran Entressengle got on the end of a loose ball under Fylde’s posts after Lewis Bradley committed men with his run, Chris Johnson opened his kicking account for the afternoon.
That was closely followed by Johnson kicking a penalty to bring them within four points.
‘Field were rampant at this point and got their next try after Guy Borrowdale’s persistence. The towering Lock charged down a kick on Fylde 10m before retrieving the bits and pieces.
His quick hands set Mark Pease away to wriggle clear and supply the finish for the converted try.
Not long before the break Fylde received a yellow after giving away a penalty which Johnson kicked to the corner.
From the lineout, ‘Field used their numerical advantage to go left to right and find Arthur Wilkinson to cross the whitewash.
Fylde’s restart was kicked dead, giving the hosts the impetus to drive back at their Lancashire visitors.
Huddersfield got to the line before eventually Chris Johnson emerged through a hole in the defence to touch down and then convert a try of his own, sending the sides in 17 points apart.
But Fylde came back out with a vengeance and in the same fashion of their first two tries, scored near carbon-copy tries early in the first half.
Both times building pressure inside ‘Field 22 both times fed right to an overload of men to saunter in behind for tries. One conversion came from the scores, and it was now game on.
The frenetic pace of the match lulled as everyone just about caught their breath. ‘Field’s intention, though was to win the match and win well.
Their next try was for the hosts in the shape of a penalty try awarded by referee Owen Taylor.
Tom Hodson made inroads to Fylde’s line excellently before stumbling just short. His teammates were in quick attendance before the pass wide came, a Fylde man deliberately knocked on before being binned and conceding seven points for his side.
Dickie Piper got ‘Field’s final try after a lineout maul rolled considerable distance to the line. They stopped just short but after the phases were worked to the right, the captain eventually got it over.
Fylde got themselves a consolation score before the last in the shape of Connor Wilkinson down the left but it would be too little, too late for Fylde’s season.
Huddersfield put the lid on a successful home campaign that saw them record 11 wins from 15. Their home form has really underpinned this season’s progress and no team looks forward to a visit to Lockwood Park.
Head Coach Gareth Lewis enjoyed the match as a spectacle, while being rueful of the defending he had no complaints about the attacking intent his side produced.
“It was a great way to end the home campaign in front of a good crowd. Tackling appeared optional at times from both teams but there was some excellent attack on show from both sides.
We can now look forward to a really tough encounter at Wharfedale next week.
