The first half was largely dominated by the visitors, who enjoyed the lions share of possession and stayed on the right side of a 9-3 penalty count inside the opening 40. After some early pressure on DMP’s 22, Henry Hadfield was harshly shown yellow after charging down a Craig Holland kick and making contact with the Rosslyn 10. The away side took full advantage, and scored 2 quickfire tries to open up a 14 point advantage. First winger Charlie Walker finished off a flowing backs move to open the scoring, before Matt Gordon powered over from close range after a Rosslyn Park driving maul. They almost had a third, however fly half Matt Minogue did brilliantly to hold up Arthur Ellis over the line to prevent a certain try. By this point Mowden had conceded 7 penalties to Rosslyn’s 0, and the game was in danger of getting away from the home side. The momentum shifted on the half hour mark however, with a series of quick penalties seeing Mowden make their way into the Rosslyn 22. The visitors fortune not to be reduced to 14 when Callum Pascoe was hauled down from a quick tap with the Rosslyn Park defender making no attempt to retreat the required 10 metres. Nonetheless Mowden took advantage of just their second visit to the 22, as Morgan Passman crashed over under a penalty advantage. A second followed shortly after, when good hands from Man of the Match Joe Craggs put Max Davies through a gap, with the lock striding over to level the scores. Rosslyn could have edged ahead at the break but a pulled penalty from Holland saw the scores remain 14-14 at the interval.

The second half started in similar fashion to the first, with relentless pressure from the visitors forcing Mowden to defend well to keep them at bay. The DMP defence held firm though, with Craggs, Davies and returning captain Ollie Hodgson all making over 10 tackles on the day. Rosslyn restored their lead after 55 minutes when Walker sprinted clear from an interception, but their advantage was short-lived as Passman evaded a host of Rosslyn Park defenders for a brilliant try which started inside his own half. A breathless 10 minutes continued when Oli Robinson crossed for the Rosslyn Park bonus point try, Bradbury converting to restore their 7 point lead. Mowden continued to press on in the final stages for the all-important fourth try, but the result was put beyond all doubt when Gordon dived over under pressure to stretch the lead to 12. It looked like Mowden would come away empty handed with time running out, but the home side showed great determination to snatch a brace of bonus points in the dying seconds. First Craggs gathered the restart before feeding Passman down the left to take DMP into the 22, with a sniping run from debutant Will Hardwick taking play up to the Rosslyn Park line. The finishing touches came from Ben Frankland, as the centre stretched over to ensure Mowden took some well-deserved points from a thoroughly entertaining game in the North East.

Mowden now travel to Birmingham Moseley next weekend, before returning to the Arena in 2 weeks time for their Friday Night Lights clash with Leeds Tykes on 28th October.