The Centurions started brightly against useful opposition who gave a much better account of themselves than the final scoreline suggests.

Alex Anson fielded an awkward ball in his own half, made ground and released Will Laidler. The young fly-half easily evaded every defender in his path apart from the full-back, who brought him down a metre from the line. Fortunately, Ratu Drikalu was following up and he gratefully dotted the ball down over the whitewash.

Pressure from Ian Charlton and Jason Armstrong at a Houghton line out allowed youthful flanker Will Roberts to burst through and gallop home from 40 metres. The visitors looked like scoring but a powerful tackle from Martyn Hutton prevented a try and dislodged the ball. Hutton and Josh Schollick hacked upfield before the rangy Roberts showed the classic skills introduced by William Webb Ellis and picked up the ball to run in under the posts. Laidler added the solitary successful conversion kick of the day.

Hard driving by Henry Barnes and Hugh Holland-Creaven was rewarded by huge ground made and an attacking penalty. Placed neatly into touch the ball was won, driven and controlled at the back of the maul by first Andy Neal then Robbie Binks who indicated left but darted right to burrow over. A powerful high stepping burst from prop forward Joabe Biautubu with a quick pass to his rumbustious colleague Drikalu allowed speedster Anson to race towards the corner. Only a last ditch high tackle prevented a score but the referee correctly awarded the penalty try.

The visitors had always looked dangerous in possession and were rewarded with two nice long-distance tries of their own, the second directly from the restart kick. Any hopes of a come-back were short-lived as Jake Sloan broke to the blindside of a scrum. Drikalu arrived in support to set Anson off into the corner for his try that had earlier been denied by the high tackle. This left the score at the break a convincing 34 - 10 to the home side.

In the second half, the Boars tightened up considerably and were always threatening. The deadlock was broken when Spencer Tolley, the last line of defence, bravely clung onto a loose ball giving time for Callum Foxcroft and Rob Earnshaw to arrive and tidy up. This allowed debutant Cameron Muir-Turnbull to launch a mighty clearing kick. The switch from defence to attack allowed Drikalu to release smooth running centre Seb Jansen who cruised home from 30 metres.

The final Tynedale try was possibly their best involving Cameron Crawford, then skipper Hutton who exploited the narrowest of gaps, made ground, and cleverly released Sloan who angled his run to cut out all defenders. There was just time for Houghton to gain a richly-deserved consolation try after a tapped penalty to wrap up this entertaining encounter.

Martyn Hastie