Ashington rugby win on the road at Barnard Castle

With their first real foray into the Ash 22 Barnard Castle scored a good try in the right hand corner after a succession of penalties against Ash for offside, a theme which was to continue.

From Ashington's re-start kick off Moffatt took a fine catch and drove into the home 22 and after a period of Ash pressure the ball was spun out to Josh Bell on the left wing who scored wide out, with the conversion missed the score was 5-5.

With the Ash scrum well on top Ash were awarded an attacking 5 meter scrum from which they were expected to score, but they were penalised for an early push, then again for an offside an finished back in their own 22. However, with a lineout steal they broke away and delivered a fine passing move which eventually saw fullback Taylor score under the posts with Arkle converting for a half time score of 5-12.

Early in the second half Henderson crashed through two tackles after a quick tap penalty to score a try but the conversion was missed. Soon after came the try of the match when skipper Arkle broke out of defence in the Ash 22 and ran some 60m before passing to the supporting Webster who in turn timed his pass well to put Bell in for his second try converted by Arkle for a 5-24 scoreline and a bonus point try.

Ash had exerted such pressure on the home scrum that two of Castle's front row had been injured so the Referee was obliged to revert to uncontested scrums for the last 20 minutes. This allowed Barnard Castle to have far more possession than they may otherwise have expected and they used it to good effect to score from an excellent kick pass to the right wing.

Ash replied immediately when Harmer backed up well to score under the posts with Arkle adding the conversion.

In the final minute, with Barnard Castle pressing the Ash line Johnson received the inevitable yellow card for offside after a general warning had been given to Ash earlier in the game for these repeated infringements.

Castle scored a try from the quick tap penalty with the final score of 19-31.

Man of the match for Ash was prop Ian Brierley who carried with determination throughout and made a big impact in the scrum.

Next week Ash travel to North Shields and will hope to continue their winning run.

Ashington – Brierly, Henderson, Smart, Harmer, Moffatt, Dickinson, Webster, Johnson, Junk, Arkle, Bell, Parsons, Hayton, Merryweather, Taylor. Reps – Higham, Newman & Luke.

*On Saturday, Ashington Women were in action in a home game against the Coastal Cyclones, going down to a 0-10 defeat.