The Covid pandemic affected this game with only 14 players able to make it up to Ashington for first game in 2022 and this extra man was to prove crucial, particularly in the second half.

The Centurions began brightly and dominated the game for the first 30 minutes. They went ahead after a flowing move involving Sam Richardson, Jake Sloan, and Henry White was halted down the left wing. Excellent support play from Cameron Crawford and Ethan McLeod saw the ball kept alive and switched infield to Donald Stembridge. The full-back stormed through the home defence to score from 40 metres with Rory Dixon adding the conversion.

Rob Earnshaw, Charlie Trim and Ollie Murrell were all held up close to the line as Tynedale continued to press but were unable to add to this early lead.

Eventually, one of several penalties resulting from indiscipline, was cleared to the Centurions 22 metre line. The line out was caught and the following maul controlled and driven by the heavier home forwards for an unconverted try. The home side repeated this manoeuvre just before half-time to leave the score at 10-7.

The realisation that their strong pack was the key to the game saw Ashington control much of the second half and they added three further tries from close range forward breaks.

Much to their credit, the Centurions rode out this storm and took the wind out of the sails of the opposition, sometimes literally, as Trim and Sloan put in some big hits in defence. For the last 10 minutes they began to climb back into the game. Andy Purves showed some neat moves out of defence, excellent support play saw Mark Smales just fail to score, and Ian Charlton crossed the line but was held up.

This renewed effort saw Stembridge score two further tries, swerving, side-stepping and brushing aside defenders from half way to land a superb hat-trick of similar scores. Dixon converted the first but the second attempt just shaved to post. Had this gone over, Tynedale would have had the chance to gain an unlikely victory from the resulting kick-off which was the last play of the match. As it was, the ball was caught, set up, and the backs aligned for one last hurrah, only to see a clumsy knock-on spoil the chance of closing the score difference to only one point in an exciting game.