On a cold, unpleasant day, both teams produced an exciting display of attacking rugby to warm the cockles of the hearts of a surprisingly large crowd, with the result in doubt until the final kick of the game.

The Centurions opened the scoring when Rory Craney won possession on half way and, with help from Dicky Dunn, moved the ball wide to a rampant Oliver Hillary. Held on the 22-metre line, he fed Sam Harrison who was able time a lovely pass to the supporting Rory Dixon to touch down.

Houghton were galvanised and their centre, the quickest man on the pitch, scored two long range beauties without a hand laid on him.

The game swung back and forth before Andrew Murray made a break from fly-half. Tackled just short, the industrious Robbie Binks drove closer to the line before Jacob Brown finished off the move, diving over from the ruck.

The visitors responded with another try from their speedster and then tried to run from defence. This ambition allowed the quick-thinking Hillary to intercept and race home.

Stung into action again, the excellent centre crossed twice to take his own and his team's tally to five tries by the break. This might have been more if wingers Adam Barnett and Dan Heppell not been vigilant in defence on numerous occasions. Just before the whistle, Owen Shield and Oliver Wall handled well, and showed great pace to make ground from half-way. When held, Harrison and Hillary linked well and fed the marauding Jacob Brown who scored his second leaving the half-time score well-balanced at 24-31.

Playing against the conditions, the strong Boars forwards played a tighter game from the restart. Their hard work led to two tries either side of a well-deserved score for promising young second row James Crosby. Having caught the ball well in the line-out, he retained possession in the resulting maul and was driven over as backs Jonny Gormley and Mark Smales cleverly joined in to continue the drive.

This appeared to be game over as Houghton took control and the Centurions had introduced all ten replacements. They were understandably a little disjointed for a while, however, these newcomers soon settled in and, three players making their debuts for the Centurions, Michael Ramsay, Phil Lloyd and Hugh Jones, contributed massively as a late fightback began.

Heppell inspired this recovery with a vital tackle in his own half and this seemed to lift the team. Martyn Hutton and Rory Booth made progress and set up a ruck 22 metres out, the neat service of Chis Kerr found Murray who was tackled five metres out. Jonny Pape and Callum Foxcroft were on hand to keep the move alive before the powerful Rhys Loughead crashed over from short-range.

With seconds to go, skipper Jake Sloan stole the ball and galloped over from half-way to touch down ten metres wide of the post. This left a tricky conversion for Dixon, without a proper kicking tee, to try and level the scores. Unfortunately, the kick slid agonisingly wide of the far post and the final whistle was blown. However, both sides can hold their heads high in a game of seven tries aside, full of effort and moments skilful rugby.