It was always going to be a tough ask for the Raiders to repeat their stellar performance of the previous week with a tricky trip up the A1 to old rivals Alnwick. The squad was also somewhat different, with only 2 of the previous week's backline playing due to unavailability and 1st XV call-ups.

Alnwick are always a combative side and difficult to break down, especially on their own patch. Perhaps the Raiders arrived in slightly complacent mindset from the previous week's showing, but in the early exchanges soon realised they were in a real contest as a series of attacks were soundly repelled by the hard-hitting Alnwick defence. On their first real invasion into the Tynedale half, Alnwick were rewarded with a penalty which they duly converted to lead 3-0 after 10 minutes played.

The game then became scrappy; multiple knock-ons and errors from both teams meant that neither side was able to mount a meaningful attack. However on 28 minutes, Alnwick conceded a ruck penalty and Josh Bate made no mistake from the tee to level things up.
Almost immediately from the kick-off the Raiders found themselves deep in their own territory and the referee brandished a yellow card for a ruck infringement and more close driving saw Alnwick score an unconverted try. The rest of the half remained all Alnwick pressure and a further penalty on 38 minutes took them into a half time 11-3 lead.

Having received some hair-dryer treatment at half-time, the Raiders came out a different side in the second period, an early series of good interlink play led to an advantage being played and Bate put in a super cross-field kick that full-back Tom Robson was able to dot down wide out, 11-8.
The Raiders now had their tails up and another excellent touch-finder from Bate allowed a 5m line-out drive to be expertly guided over the line and dotted down by Dan Lowdon, with Bate converting for Tynedale to lead for the first time in the match 11-15.

The remainder of the match was again fairly scrappy with neither side able to string sufficient phases together to really stretch the opposition. Alnwick were eventually penalised in the dying moments and another well-struck penalty from the impressive Bate secured a final score of 11-18.

Not the Raiders finest performance but the second-half showed plenty of character - they will look to continue their league run at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday.