A Mixed weekend for Tynedales colts squad.
Saturday
Colts 24 Kelso 25
Sunday
Consett 10 Colts 38
This weekends rugby started with a home fixture on Saturday in The Border league against Kelso. A win was required to keep Tynedale in the hunt for their first league title in over a decade.
It was unfortunately not to be although extremely close. With a nice little wind in their faces in the first half Tynedale went into the half time break 18 points to nil down.

A re shuffle of players and a gentle breeze with them in the 2nd half and the mighty blue and whites almost pulled off a comeback worthy of a heavy weight boxer !
Pies must be in abundance and free in the border town of Kelso this season, Kelso turned up for the game with half their pack weighing in at over 18st a man ! Mix that with the William Wallace never lie down attitude and you have a game on your hands.

For the first time in the season Tynedale had almost all their squad players available for selection which is a pleasure for the coaching team.
The game started promising for the blue and whites as they started at a cracking pace. Unfortunately 5mins in and a Kelso scrum 5yds off their line the Kelso no8 picked up and set off, with the assistance of a text book block by the ref on the Tynedale flanker the Kelso player scampered over the line to score.

Tynedale clung on against the wind and a huge dominate pack and eventually went in 18 nil down which on reflection was pretty good considering the lack of ball and opportunitys they had.

The second half was a different matter. The introduction of the Tynedale substitutes and the wind in their favour for the first time the blue and whites started to take control by playing a much quicker, wider game. Superb spirit and team work for the next 30mins resulted in three tries and a lead of 24-18 going into the final 5 minutes.

As so often happens in games of this calibre Kelso had one last roll of the dice when they worked their way up the park to within 5 mtrs of the Tynedale line. Good ball retention and good use of the pie eating monsters in their pack resulted in a last minute try for the visitors wide out on the left of the uprights.
One point down and the conversation to take the Kelso kicker (who hadn't missed a kick all afternoon) stepped up cool as a cucumber and slotted the winning conversion to seal their win.

As you can imagine the Tynedale players were disappointed having worked so hard to get back into the game, but all is not lost yet with the league. There are now only two teams left unbeaten and neither have played Tynedale, so there is a glint of light still on the horizon.
Next Saturday our colts travel to one of those unbeaten teams Hawick. Losing is now not an option if they want to keep their hopes of league success alive.
With no Sunday Halbro league fixture we are hoping all the squad will travel up to Hawick and support the selected squad.