South take the long trip to Tyndale

For Tyndale it was a far from a one man show though as number eight Scott Powell put together a master class at the back of the scrum, and centre Ash Smith had a perfect day with the boot, landing six kicks out of six, some of them at the very edge of his range. But the whole team played well in the second half, after a first half when the tackling was poor, and they seemed in danger of being steam-rollered into the mud by a very large South Leicester pack.

A win seemed unlikely early on the second half when they trailed 24-13, but as the big South Leicester forwards started to wallow, Tynedale got stronger and stronger to finish well on top.

James Clark finishes well Tynedale started well, and took an early lead with a Ash Smith penalty from the wide out on the 10 metre line. It seemed to have dropped short, but after a consultation, the touch judges's flags went up for the three points.

South Leicester's tactics were crude but effective - either trundle through the middle with their juggernaut of a pack. or kick wide to capitalise on the flaring pace of the wingers. Both tactics were used to good effect in response to Tynedale's early score.

First Tynedale were propelled back over their own line at a rate of knots for a try under the posts, by scrum half Chris Gibbs with fly half Ricky Aley converting.

Smith got a second penalty, but on 18 minutes, Aley’s chip bounced kindly for winger Calum Gunn to gather and skate in under the posts for Aley to convert. Aley extended the lead with a penalty on 28 minutes before Tynedale prop Ben Haigh muscled his way over for Smith to convert to make it 13-17 at the break. Haigh was then yellow carded, but Tynedale's 14 men hung on well.

Jamie Murray scores on comeback South Leicester ignored several simple penalty chances to got for higher scores but were kept at bay until five minutes into the second half, when flanker Fred Tuilagi battered his way over, Aley’s conversion making it 13-24.

However, Tynedale came roaring back, applying such sustained pressure that South Leicester picked up a yellow card and with a well worked try for winger James Clark, Smith hit a great conversion from the touchline, before Murray rolled back the years with a typical touchdown from the base of driving maul from a line-out. That edged Tynedale ahead at 25-24 with 15 minutes left, Smith's conversion extending their lead.

There was a lot of nail-biting going on, before the last move of the game, flanker Nick Cairns stormed through from 15 yards to touch down under the sticks, Smith maintained his 100 per cent record with the boot to seal a memorable win.

Report courtesy of Brian Tilley, Hexham Courant