Mowden Make Tynedale Pay a Heavy Price

Tynedale 12 – 55 Darlington Mowden Park

Pace over power as Mowden run in nine tries, reopen the A68 and leave Tynedale chasing shadows.

Two conflicting styles were on display on Saturday as Mowden’s backlines fast-flowing rugby, quick hands and free-running forwards left a big, physical Tynedale side chasing shadows for the opening 30 minutes — before turning the pace back up and doing much the same again over the final 20.

In what has become the National 2 North derby weekend, this fixture was always poised to be a cracker. Tynedale had taken the bragging rights from both meetings last season. Add in match reports about A68 being closed to Teesside teams, some constant heckling from the microphone at the Tynedale 7s and recent social posts — with Tynedale players clearly relishing the fixture with all the pressure appeared to be firmly on DMP. It certainly didn’t show. In fact, by the half-hour mark the only pressure required was probably the sort needed to reinflate a thoroughly deflated Tynedale.

Thirty Minutes of Mowden Mayhem

After just three minutes Mowden struck a superb team move opened up the home defence and Mark Williams showed a fresh pair of heels to finish in the corner. Charlie Dineen added the conversion and DMP were up and running.
The second followed almost immediately. Ben Douglas picked and went blind, Alfie Warwick hot-stepped his way past three Tynedale defenders, giving an early indication of an afternoon in which he would prove almost impossible to contain.
Mowden were playing at a speed Tynedale simply couldn’t live with. Rather than trying to take the home side on in an arm wrestle, DMP made sure there was barely an arm available to wrestle. Ball was moved quickly away from contact, forwards became distributors and runners, and the point of attack was constantly shifted before Tynedale’s heavier defenders could reset.
The third try demonstrated the confidence coursing through Mowden. Junior Newton, back in the side following injury, produced a clever chip from inside his own 22 into the hands of the chasing Liam Checksfield, Checksfield fed Dineen, who raced away from halfway to finish a terrific counter-attacking score.

At 19-0 after 15 minutes, Mowden weren’t finished. Loose ball was collected by Warwick and the winger was once again untouchable, leaving four Tynedale defenders grabbing at thin air as he crossed for his second and the bonus-point try.
If that was good, the fifth was arguably the try of the afternoon. Some superb interplay carved Tynedale apart, with runners appearing on both shoulders and the ball travelling considerably quicker than the defence. Eventually it found Newton, who marked his return from injury with the first of a brace and was rapidly playing himself into a Man of the Match performance.

Try number six summed up the pressure Mowden were applying both with and without the ball. Aggressive defence forced a loose Tynedale pass, Charlie Turnbull reacted first and fed Ben Douglas. The scrumhalf produced a delicate grubber through the defence and Newton won the race to score his second. Thirty minutes played. Six unanswered tries. Mowden 36, Tynedale 0.
Tynedale wanted collisions. They wanted scrums, mauls, territory and a contest built around the weight and power of their forwards. Mowden simply refused to stand still long enough to oblige them.
Quick ball and quick hands moved Tynedale from one side of the pitch to the other. Warwick, Williams, Dineen and Newton attacked spaces rather than bodies, while Mowden’s mobile forwards repeatedly provided the link that kept the ball alive.
The home side’s own report described DMP’s combination of “electrifying pace, quick hands and good distribution” as giving Mowden the edge in all departments. It was difficult to disagree.

Then Came the Street Fight…

With Tynedale on the ropes and the towel seemingly not far from being thrown, the home side needed the game to change.
For the next 15 minutes, it did. If they couldn’t win a track meet, their best hope was to turn it into a street fight. After three or four “rugby incidents”, the temperature rose and Mowden suddenly began helping Tynedale’s cause. Two clearance kicks and a box kick that really should have found touch stayed infield, giving Tynedale the opportunity to roll out the heavy artillery and finally slow proceedings down.
And, to be fair to them, they executed that part of their game very well.
Scrum.
Penalty.
Another scrum.
Another penalty.
Repeat.

Tynedale worked themselves into what their own Chris Leslie wonderfully described as “a bit of a froth”, and suddenly the yellow cards were being scattered like confetti.

First Charlie Turnbull was shown yellow following a penalty try. Liam Checksfield then followed for a deliberate knock-on. Elvis Kitenge-Fuki, who had barely had time to get his boots dirty after entering the field, received the dreaded “team yellow” following another scrum infringement. Throw in a few skirmishes — some might say tactical — and somehow a match Mowden had controlled completely for half an hour had descended into mayhem.

DMP were down to 12 men. Tynedale had finally managed to create exactly the sort of contest they wanted. Yet the damage inflicted during those opening 30 minutes was already enormous.

Twelve Men, But Still Standing

A penalty try finally put Tynedale on the board and Mowden’s priority changed. This was no longer about playing at breakneck speed. It was about managing the cards, defending intelligently and getting enough bodies back onto the field to resume normal service.

Tynedale tried to exploit their huge numerical advantage but, considering they briefly had three extra men, the return was remarkably limited. Replacement Tom Campbell did cross from a forward drive shortly after the restart to reduce the deficit further — sparking another bout of handbags for good measure — but Mowden refused to unravel.

That period was important. The opening half-hour showed how devastating DMP could be with ball in hand. The period with 12, 13 and 14 men showed something different: resilience, organisation and a willingness to dig in when the momentum and numbers were stacked against them, this was noted in the post-match gathering by Head Coach Daz Fearne who noted that period in the game had much more relevance than the final scoreline. Tynedale had finally dragged Mowden into their sort of game, they just couldn’t keep them there.

Normal Service Resumed

As the yellow cards expired and Mowden returned to a full complement, the complexion of the match changed again. And for Tynedale, there was an even bigger problem. They had already spent much of the opening half-hour chasing Mowden’s runners from touchline to touchline. They had then invested heavily in a bruising, forward-dominated spell around the interval now those same legs were being asked to defend Mowden’s pace all over again. The gaps began to reappear, the ball started travelling wider and suddenly Tynedale were chasing pink and teal shirts once more, just a nod to our new Dementia awareness shirts…very nice indeed (available to buy in time for Christmas ?)

Williams added his second of the afternoon as Mowden rediscovered the space that had caused such devastation earlier. Scrum-half Ben Douglas — whose distribution had helped keep Mowden moving throughout the afternoon — found the gap and strolled over, this was followed by a great support line by Jacob Oliver, who added try number nine.

The final whistle confirmed an emphatic 55-12 victory and one of Mowden’s most complete attacking performances in recent times.
The opening 30 minutes were devastating.

The visitors didn’t try to prove they could shove a heavier side backwards for 80 minutes. Instead they moved them, stretched them and made them repeatedly defend players travelling at pace.

Tynedale’s response either side of half-time deserves credit. Their scrum became a genuine weapon, they forced penalties and cards and, for a spell, succeeded in changing the nature of the contest. But once Mowden had 15 players back on the pitch, the difference between the two approaches became apparent again.

There were outstanding performances throughout the Mowden side on speaking to Daz Fearne afterwards, he remarked “that’s a 20-man, man of the match performance however, Warwick was a threat every time he touched the ball — something acknowledged in the Tynedale reports themselves — while Williams’ finishing, Dineen’s running threat and the contributions of Douglas and the mobile Mowden pack were all central to the victory.

But Man of the Match goes to Junior Newton.
Returning from injury, Newton scored twice, played a major part in Mowden’s attacking tempo and produced the vision and execution that helped turn defence into attack in an instant. His performance epitomised exactly what was good about Mowden on the afternoon, not only that he celebrated his 21st Birthday with brace and MOM, Happy Birthday Junior!

For Tynedale, Joe Beaty’s crunching tackles provided one of the brighter notes, while their scrum demonstrated what might have been possible had they managed to dictate the type of contest for longer.

After last season’s two defeats, there was certainly a little score to settle, consider it settled (for now). The bragging rights head back down the road and after a temporary closure last season, we’re delighted to confirm that the A68 is officially reopened to Teesside.

Tynedale had briefly turned it into a street fight, Mowden simply turned the lights back on — and had them chasing shadows again.

FT: Tynedale 12 – 55 Darlington Mowden Park
Scorers:
Mark Williams (2)
Junior Newton (2)
Alfie Warwick (2)
Charlie Dineen
Jacob Oliver
Ben Douglas
Conversions: Charlie Dineen (5/9)