After a recent heavy defeat to Medicals, the Centurions came out on top in the return fixture at Tynedale Park on a glorious Autumn afternoon.
The visitors took an early lead when their speedy backline broke through the Centurions defence to score an unconverted try. The Tynedale forwards began to dominate the contest up front and a big drive in the scrum led by the front row of Ed Weir, man of the match Brogan Miller and Lewis Spark, produced good ball and number eight Toby Clifford forced his way over the line, Adam Todhunter converted to give Tynedale the lead on 20 mins.
The student side went back into the lead five minutes later when they scored a try but failed to convert. The Centurions were still dominant in the forward battle and a good spell of play with James Sample, George Hendry and Josh Turnbull making the Medicals defence work hard to keep them at bay led to Ed Weir scoring from a forward drive over the line, the promising young prop getting the touchdown to put Tynedale in front, Todhunter added the conversion.
With five minutes left in the half, scrum half James Bell moved the ball to the right from a ruck and Mark Smales, Sam Harrison moved the ball out to allow winger Ryan Laverty to race over the line to stretch the home sides lead. In the final moments of the half Ollie Hillary finished off a spell of Tynedale dominance with a try, cutting through the Medicals defence with a strong run, Todhunter converted to give Tynedale a 26 - 10 advantage at the break.
The Centurions pressed the Medicals line and with good play from Rob Earnshaw, Ethan McCloud and Callum Snowdon, fresh from the strong line up of the replacements bench, Tynedale went further ahead with the impressive Todhunter slotting a penalty awarded for an infringement in the ruck.
A strong run from prop Lewis Spark led to the big tight head scoring the final Tynedale try, Todhunter added the extras.
The final fifteen minutes were dominated by the young student side and despite good defensive work by Jake Sloan, Martin Hutton and the mercurial Andy Purvis, the game hung in the balance until the end with Medicals scoring three well worked scores, one conversion. The Centurions had to defend well with the visiting side threatening to take the victory away from a seemingly lost cause, but with no further scores, the Tynedale side hung on to gain the win against the talented Medicals side who had recorded big wins in their early league matches.