Fylde and Lancashire rugby boss ready to go the distance on long road to Twickenham

The Red Rose’s second group game of the County Championship campaign will be staged at Hertford RFC tomorrow (3pm), when Fylde RFC’s Loney bids to build on his winning start as Lancashire head coach in last weekend’s 54-19 victory over Cheshire at Birkenhead Park.

There were plenty of familiar faces for Fylde’s joint-head coach in a matchday squad of 22 which included 10 of his Woodlands charges.

Fylde skipper Ben Gregory scored the first two of Lancashire’s eight tries, while clubmates Jordan Dorrington and Greg Smith also crossed the whitewash and Smith added five conversions for a tally of 15 points.

Lancashire hope tomorrow’s journey will be the first of two to the South East this month, with the North Division One winners earning the right to compete for the Bill Beaumont Cup in the final at Twickenham on May 28.

First of all, the Red Rose must overcome Hertfordshire ahead of a Roses decider against a formidable Yorkshire side at Sedgley Park a week tomorrow – Yorkshire overwhelmed Hertfordshire 70-19 at Harpenden last weekend.

Loney told The Gazette: “Cheshire have performed well in this competition in recent years and the first game is always tricky because you don’t have much time to work with the players.

“It’s a new group and you are trying to get the atmosphere right as well as the technical detail, and I’m really happy with such a strong start.

“With my Fylde hat on, the Fylde players performed really well. They showed they are quality players and why they are in the squad. We had a number on debut and they showed they are worthy of a county shirt.”

Tomorrow’s round trip of around 460 miles is the sort of journey no longer familiar to Fylde in the regionalised National League Two, though Loney hopes to turn that into a positive.

“It will be a long day and a decent distance to travel,” he added. “Hopefully a good bus trip will help to further galvanise the squad and help us to perform well.

“There will be a couple of changes and you always expect availability issues at this time of year but the team will be largely the same. You want to get consistency and continuity, and hopefully we’ll get another good performance.”

Loney believes Hertfordshire will be motivated by last Saturday’s heavy defeat, adding: “Yorkshire’s result did not surprise me. They are a big county with lots of history in this competition and they will be buoyed by a good first performance.

“Before we face them we are fully focused on Saturday. We have full respect for Hertfordshire, who will want to respond.”

Loney has taken the coaching reins from Mark Nelson, who remains heavily involved as squad co-ordinator and said: “The players responded superbly to the excellent preparation by the new coaching team and the management group.

“That was as good a performance by a Lancashire team, particularly the first half, as I’ve seen and I have seen a lot. Now the group is looking to build on the foundations put down.”