DMPRFC 53 v TYNEDALE RFC 19

A defeat and a scoreline of 19 – 53 may not have been expected by online pundits and Tynedale RFC connections, but DMPRFC connections knew that shortly, someone was in for a surprise and it just happened to be at Tynedale Park
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Conditions were perfect for a day of open, running rugby and with both teams capable of playing that type of game, all augured well for the home side, when after only four minutes had elapsed, their top try scoring winger touched down after good inter-passing in midfield found the overlap (5 – 0).

DMPRFC began to exert themselves on the game from then on and by oranges had secured the try bonus point, scoring 5 tries in the process.

A kick out of defence by Tynedale saw the first DMPRFC try, when visiting flanker Callum MACKENZIE gathered the ball and set off from inside his own half. Two strong hand offs on some poor defenders later and he was well into home territory, offloading to full back Henry ROBINSON in support, who provided the scoring pass for winger Chris McTURK to open the account for the visitors (5 – 5). Fly half Tom HODGSON secured the conversion (5 – 7).

DMPRFC never looked back after that and dominated the scrum and had much the better of the lineouts.

On previous occasions, DMPRFC had always secured a lot of possession, but had failed to capitalise turning that into points on the board. However, this was all to change, as they scored 8 more tries in a period of 40 minutes, with only the interval in between.
At this stage, although not known at the time, the overall result was dampened by an injury to young No.8 Ollie HODGSON, who had to leave the field with a hand injury, subsequently diagnosed as a break in two places, probably necessitating surgery and a long, enforced lay-off. (EVERYONE AT DMPRFC WISHES HIM A SPEEDY RECOVERY). His replacement Jack ALLCOCK entered the fray seamlessly.

DMPRFC centre Jamie BARNARD was next to register 8 minutes after the McTURK effort, cutting through the home defence to go all the way from 20 metres (5 – 12).

With Tynedale severely under the cosh at scrum time, a scrum half snipe from loanee Zylon McGAFFIN was to follow, after could work firstly from winger Joe NELLANY in winning the scrum 5 metres out, by kicking through and forcing a defender to carry over his own line. The scrum was a forgone conclusion for a pushover, but as a penalty was awarded for a scrum infringement, McGAFFIN took over and crashjed through two defenders for the score (5 – 17).

DMPRFC were obtaining possession at will and 4 minutes later, from a defending lineout, Tynedale overthrew the ball to a waiting Jack ALLCOCK, who made good progress, before offloading to lock Rob CONQUEST who charged over for the score (5 – 22).
DMPRFC winger Chris McTURK was over for his brace ten minutes before the break, as from the restart of CONQUEST’s try, a tap back by Tynedale was snaffled in open play by DMPRFC hooker Matt THOMPSON, who shipped the ball on to the speedster McTURK, who scorched over (5 – 27). Ton HODGSON converted (5 – 29).

DMPRFC had a further opportunity to add further points, as Tynedale defended doggedly on their own line, but it wasn’t to be and the official blew for oranges.

A determined set of DMPRFC players returned to the changing rooms in anticipation of more of the same after the break, as Tynedale players looked more reticent as they trudged off.

After the break it was more of the same unfortunately as the collective Tynedale will began to break.

Hard working flanker Callum MACKENZIE scored in the corner after only 4 minutes of the re-start, with contributions from McGAFFIN and skipper Cameron MITCHELL (5 – 34).

Winger Joe NELLANY capped a fine performance on the day with some fine speed down his wing to account for DMPRFC‘s seventh try with a good individual effort (5 – 39).

DMPRFC began to ring the changes replacement prop Ralph APPLEBY benefitted from another overthrown defensive lineout ball, crashing over from 10 metres (5 – 44), again converted by HODGSON (5 – 46).

The silenced Tyndale crowd could do little other than applaud the DMPRFC’s last try from full back Henry ROBINSON. An individual effort from his own 22-metre line, he kept running and running passing would be tacklers who expected the offload that didn’t come and saw him the length of the field to score (5 – 51). Again Tom HODGSON converted (5 – 53).

With the game firmly in the bag, DMPRFC lost some impetus when both flankers were innocuously but quite rightly sin-binned more or less within a minute of each other and whilst the visitors were reduced to 13 players, Tyndale restored some pride with two late scores, one of which was converted (19 – 53).

Overall a resounding victory for DMPRFC and 5 vital league points.

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