Following the previous two weeks' victories both ground out in challenging conditions, Tynedale Raiders travelled to Middlesbrough in good spirits and hopeful of doing an early season double over Middlesbrough, having overcome the Teesside outfit by over 100 points only in October.

Even during the warm-up it was evident that conditions would fully play their part in proceedings as the pitch was extremely heavy making any slick back-play or fleet-footed running an almost impossibility.

Tynedale kicked the game off under a darkening sky and for the first 10 minutes applied constant waves of pressure on Middlesbrough without ever really stretching the defence to be able to land a killer blow. In fact the young Tynedale side struggled all day to generate quick ruck ball and meaningful forward momentum to set free their backs and runners.

Having weathered the early pressure it was Middlesbrough who struck first, in contrast to the Raiders, their direct running lines and abrasiveness at the breakdown allowed them to play in behind the panicked Tynedale defence and create an opening for their centre to crash over for an unconverted score.

An almost carbon copy attack followed on 28 minutes and again the Raiders found themselves under their own posts as the Middlesbrough kicker was successful this time with the conversion, 12-0.

From the re-start, Tynedale showed their best attacking shape and some neat hands from both forwards and backs put full-back Tom McAllum in space 15 metres out and he darted through to score an unconverted try to bring the score to 12-5 with 34 minutes played. Tynedale tried to find a levelling score before the half time whistle but both ponderance in attack and softness in the breakdown area cost them any further scoring opportunity.

Despite some stern words at half-time, and the Raiders knowing that the next score in the match would be crucial, things didn’t really improve. In fact the second half turned into something of a turgid affair with neither side able to build phased possession but on 70 minutes Middlesbrough effectively sealed the win with a fine break off the back of a line out and some good off-the-shoulder support seeing them score a converted try under the Tynedale posts to give a final score of 19-5.

Full credit to Middlesbrough for their spirited and combative performance, but this was very much a day to forget for the Raiders who were out-fought in almost every aspect of the game. There were however two notable performances from Tyendale; second row Dicky Dunn was physical both in attack and defence all afternoon, and man of the match John Clarkson had a fine game at scrum-half despite having very little front-foot ball to work with.

The Raiders need to pick themselves up before the visit of Darlington Mowden Park next week in the Candy League Cup.