AVIEWOFSEMI-PRORUGBY FROM A LOCAL FOOTBALL WRITER
Michael Ball, aka the ‘West Lancs Wanderer’, is a North West writer/blogger on non-league football. He spent the 14th October at the Fylde v Tynedale National Two (North) match at the Woodlands at the invitation of Fylde Chairman of Rugby, Mark Nelson. His reflections on the common elements of rugby and football below the very elite level are particularly interesting. Thanks for this article Michael!
This visitor hasn’t a clue. Another bugbear of rugby can be the over-importance of the penalty kick, but happily this is a relatively fluid, open encounter, which can only cheer those who think rugby should be more of a running game, akin to that in the halcyon days of Jeremy Guscott, Rory Underwood and, at Fylde, Brendan Hanavan. At half-time, after a slow start, Fylde trail 15-22, having scored two late tries against four. Early in the second half, Fylde, whose players have adverts on their posteriors, lead briefly for the first time. They score the day’s best try with a fine line break by Corey Bowker, but Tynedale rightly prevail, with six tries to four. A game not decided by kicking brings five points for the winners, two for Fylde. Overall, the game seems to pass in a flash and indeed it’s good entertainment. Although some tries are down to rather dull close- range forward drives, both teams take quick penalties and put on some stirring running rugby, while the respect for the referee is total. Understandably Nelson, a lifelong Burnley fan on account of his upbringing in Colne, whose nephew Kit has signed pro terms with Preston North End, offers that as an example for football. ‘Discipline,’ he says instantly when asked what football could learn from rugby. ‘Respect for the officials, player behaviour, spectator behaviour. It’s all very well having rivalry, but there’s no segregation in rugby and no violence.’ As for what rugby could learn from football, conscious of the demise of such well-known rugby clubs as Worcester and Wasps, he focuses on how football is run at the top end. ‘We could look a lot at how the clubs run themselves, how the players hone technical skills and the dietary analysis. The way the agents work and how the players’ pensions are looked after is also important. Rugby could also learn a lot from the insurance arrangements. If you’re a pro footballer, you do get looked after. There’s a lot we can pull from football.’ For the moment, though, there’s still two weeks of rugby’s World Cup, with England up against Fiji. What of the prospects for Steve Borthwick’s side? ‘I think England should be able to overcome Fiji and just maybe are timing it right.’ Can he see England winning it? ‘I can, but I wouldn’t predict it,’ he grins. ‘Seven out of 10’ is the match rating in terms of spectator appeal for Nelson, an animated onlooker who doubtless rates Fylde’s performance rather lower. It has been an enjoyable day, after twigging that a yellow card means the sinbin. Some things were mystifying – what is this 50:20 rule and shouldn’t scrum put-ins be straight? Why do hordes of water carriers invade the pitch so regularly? But it won’t be another 25 years before this blog returns to rugby.
FLUID FARE AT FYLDE OFFERS A WELCOME REMINDER
Fylde 30, Tynedale 34 Saturday October 14, 2023
Moral standards appear to be rather higher in rugby union than certain other sports we might care to mention. When the referee, sporting a natty green top, brandishes a yellow card, the player in question takes himself off for a whole 10 minutes. Yet a yellow card is a booking, right? They do things differently in the game with the odd-shaped ball, which in recent years has been peripheral for this non-league football fan. Thankfully, expert help in understanding what unfolds is on hand in the shape of a neighbour in the press box and Fylde’s chairman of rugby Mark Nelson. The latter is also an accomplished artist and musician – chapeau, Monsieur. Prompted by the World Cup, with England in the quarter-finals, it’s a first visit to the Fylde club in Lytham this century. Tynedale, based in Northumberland, are in town for a National League 2 North encounter and Fylde, after three defeats, need a win. This visitor, having drifted away from rugby after youthful enthusiasm, needs good entertainment – at £12 for entry, especially so. ‘The World Cup overall has been fantastic,’ says Nelson before the action. ‘We are into the knockout stages and I think it has been superb.’ Is he aware of non-rugby followers converted to the game? ‘Very much so – I’ve a group of friends who are non-rugby people and all they want to talk about is rugby. ‘They’re all football fans, Blackpool, Manchester United. Their passion is football, but they’ve really got into the rugby. In fact one, a Manchester United season ticketholder, has got tickets and is in France now. The tournament has really grabbed his imagination, helped massively by being on terrestrial TV.’ The TV cameras visit Fylde only rarely, but it’s a good standard of rugby, equivalent perhaps to football’s Conference North. The club, known for ex-player Bill Beaumont, a former England captain and now chairman of World Rugby, offers a slick matchday experience in an extended clubhouse. Some things, however, never change – some refereeing decisions remain unfathomable even to clued-up spectators. ‘What was that decision, Nelly?’ is a question in the first half from Fylde’s media man to Nelson, prompting blank looks and much shaking of heads.
www. fylderugby .co.uk
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