The Tynedale second string came out on top in a bruising derby encounter against local rivals Ryton in a friendly fixture arranged at the last minute after both sides lost their original opponents during the week.

The young Raiders pack was given a torrid time by the Ryton eight, but contested manfully to the end and gave a plentiful supply of possession to the talented back line who swung the game in the visitors' favour with some slick passing moves carried out at pace on a firm Barmoor playing surface.
The Tynedale side gained territorial advantage from the start and threatened the Ryton line early on but were denied by the well organised defence, with Will Richards, Ed Cawthorne, Tommy Matthews and Jacob Brown threatening to break through.
With strong carries from Callum Morrell, Robert Parker finding space with his mazy runs and captain Matt Williams making great use of quick ball, it was promising young centre Thomas Beatty who opened the scoring in the 29th minute.

The Ryton forwards then came to the fore and forced their way over the line after a period of pressure to level the scores with the match approaching half time. Tynedale were then forced to make a change with Matthews picking up an injury and leaving the field to be replaced by Charlie Richards. From the restart Tynedale pressured the Ryton side and good scrummaging by the young front row of Oliver Wall, David O'Neill and hooker Owen Shield kept the pressure on the hosts and eventually scrum half Matt Williams found a gap in the home defence to score a great opportunist try. Josh Leslie added the conversion to restore the Tynedale lead at half time.

At the break influential hooker Dan Lowden and centre Tom Robson replaced the injured Will Richards, with Morrell moving into the pack.
The under pressure Tynedale pack were tested time and again in the scrum but managed to win possession and scored the opening try of the second half when winger Seb Jansen benefitted from Parker's break to cross the line.

The home side then replied with a converted try after their forward pressure paid off. The Raiders were gaining good ball at the lineout through James Sample and Brown and Josh Leslie scored the next try which he converted himself.

The Ryton pack began to gain dominance over the tiring Tynedale eight, having been forced work hard to contain the stronger Ryton forwards and when Charlie Richards was shown a yellow card for a high tackle their task became even harder.
Ryton scored two converted tries to take a 26- 24 lead with 15 mins left in the game. Ryton continued to press the Tynedale line for a long spell but the Raiders defended with great determination and held out until Richards came back from his ten minutes sin bin period.

The decisive next score came from left winger James Ferguson, who had performed heroics in defence all through the contest, when he crossed under the posts to round off a 'man of the match' performance and allowing Leslie to add the conversion from a relatively easy position in front of the sticks with ten minutes remaining.

The Tynedale side were tested for the remainder of the game but managed to prevent their Durham and Northumberland League Two opponents from scoring the decisive winning try. Some great defensive work from the entire team managed to keep the Ryton side out and take the victory in a entertaining encounter, with both sides contributing so much to a fantastic game of rugby.