Much had been said about the long list of injuries of the Tynedale RFC 1ST XV and there is no doubt that this is true, however, at the Northern Echo Arena, they competed well and with a formidable back 5 in the forwards, led by a former Newcastle Falcons stalwart, they provided stiff opposition in the first half of this National League One local derby.

DMPRFC seemed out of sorts before the break and squandered several scoring opportunities, with the final pass being either dropped or thrown forward,.

Tynedale for their part in the first half, defended well and had a few scoring opportunities themselves, however again, a mixture of mistakes and good home defence thwarted any scores.

With two of the three CONNON brothers in direct opposition to each other at fly half, it was fitting that the only scores of the first half were limited to a penalty apiece and with the score at 3 - 3 at oranges, the disappointed decent crowd in attendance, hoped for an improvement after the interval.

For the DMPRFC contingent, this came immediately after the kick off for the second half, as Tynedale sought to clear their lines with a kick to touch. Unfortunately for them, it was a poor kick and found it's way into the hands of the older CONNON brother Grant, just inside Tyndale territory. He set off into the heart of the visiting defence, displaying pace and power through any would be tacklers, evading them on for a superb individual try near to the posts (8 - 3), leaving himself an easy conversion (10 - 3).

Tynedale responded five minutes later, with the former Falcon lock crashing over after a series of pick and drives by his forward colleagues (10 - 8).

From the re-start, the ball was knocked on by a Tynedale winger and from the resulting scrum, the ball was shipped across the back line, leaving home winger Ben RATH just enough room to squeeze into the corner for the score (15 - 8).

As both teams battled for the upper hand and the means with which to push on and win the game, Tynedale added to their points tally with a well struck penalty by the younger CONNON brother, as DMPRFC had strayed offside (15 - 11).

A break, led by the influential home lock Ben GLEDHILL, projected DMPRFC deep into Tynedale territory, eventually finding centre Garry LAW, who's instant reverse pass to his centre partner and skipper Cameron MITCHELL heralded the next try for the home side (20 - 11), as the game entered the final quarter.

As Tynedale'sresolve appeared to wilt for the first time in the game, again GLEDHILL was the instigator of an attack and he provided the scoring pass to winger Tom KILL, who outsprinted the visiting defence for the score (25 - 11). Replacement centre Tom HODGSON added the extras (27 - 11).

A late consolation try deep into time added on by one of the two of Tynedale's hard working flankers closed the gap somewhat (27 - 16), converted by CONNON the younger (27 - 18) and the kick brought with it the final whistle, in a game that came to life after oranges, but brought Tynedale no consolation and no points, leaving them increasingly adrift with Macclesfield RFC at the bottom of the league.

Whatever their destiny this season, all at DMPRFC wish them well, as their players and alickadoos are always the best of opponents and company respectively and yesterday was no exception.