Tynedale Colts sponsored by Arnold Clark entertained Jedburgh in a return from the first fixture of the season. With that game finishing 5-5 and both teams level on 5 league points it was looking like being a close contest. The early exchanges were nip and tuck with Will Brown making some hard yards looking very lively early on and Angus White captaining the side leading by example.
But just as one team looked to be gaining momentum a silly error or needless penalty given away got play back up to midfield. It was just before the half time whistle when the deadlock was broken a good surge from Jed found the Colts defence in disarray out wide and they romped in for an unconverted try.
Early in the second half Tynedale infringed then gave an extra 10 metres to allow the Thistle kicker to slot over from 24 metres and make it 8-0. This spurred the Colts on and with Jack Outsen on at scrum half controlling the game they started to knock Jed onto the back foot. When Jed gave a penalty for slowing the ball down up stepped Ryan Potts to claim the 3 points for Tynedale.
Even though silly penalties were still being given away it was all Tynedale from this point on, Brogan Millar with the Man of the Match display was winning all the loose ball. Chris Heslop came on and created some gaps with tidy footwork and the pacey Callum Young was nearly away on more than one occasion.
With 10 minutes left a Hessi run and a couple of drives by the forwards had Jed pinned back in their own 22 hanging on with last ditch tackling. When the Colts were awarded a 5 metre scrum Potsy got enough space to dive in at the corner for a well deserved try, hitting the post with the conversion attempt the scores were level at 8-8.
With the clock ticking down the Blue and White hoops were battering the Jed line and finding the defence well up to the challenge. Tynedale were awarded a kickable penalty but opted to run it and on reflection a draw was the right result. This was a much better performance but still leaves a lot of areas for improvement.