Ashington rugby win away at Winlaton

On 15 minutes a Dickinson break from a scrum in the Ash 22 set up a Hayton and Weeks move that took play into the Winlaton 22. In the next phase the ball was swept wide and Merryweather, who had an outstanding first half, jinked his way over for a try in the corner to give Ash a 0-5 lead.

Two minutes later Ash extended their lead when Jordan Webster and Josh Weeks combined to create space for Jack Taylor who raced in from 30m out. Ashington now had a 0-10 lead.

From the restart Ash failed to clear, leading to a period of sustained pressure, which resulted in the Winlaton pack rumbling over from a lineout for a converted try, to give a 7-10 score after 25 minutes.

Penalties were costing Ashington territory meaning they were often on the back foot and forced to defend deep in their own half for sustained periods. When they did get the ball they always looked dangerous and excellent runs by Taylor, Aaron Macdonald and Merryweather set up good attacking positions.

It was a Merryweather jinking run that set up the attack for Dickinson to break through two attempted tackles to cross for Ashington’s third try, Arkle adding the conversion to give a 7-17 score.

Ash finished the final five minutes of the half defending, with the highlight being another 40m Merryweather jinking run out of defence.

The second half began with Ash once again forced to defend as they failed to deal effectively with the kick off, Winlaton taking full advantage to score out wide, taking the score to 12-17.

Brierly and More replaced Martinez and Matthew Webster, with Brierly having an immediate impact with a typical barging run to set up an attacking ruck. Play was switched to the left, and after a couple of forward drives Josh Weeks barged his way through the centres to cross for the first of his two tries, Arkle converting.

Eight minutes later, Weeks again barrelled his way through three attempted tackles as he crashed his way over for his second try, again Arkle converting to give Ash a 12-31 lead.

Ashington were at last playing decent rugby, an Arkle chip was collected by Nichol who cut inside his winger and fed the supporting Merryweather who raced 40m to score out wide for his second try.

Dickinson then broke two tackles to power his way 40m out of defence, a lovely jinking Ewan Dodgson, run, the first of two up the wing, saw Owen Hayton ghost through the gap to score, Ash leading 12-41.

Ash were now dominating and with what was the final play of the match Brierly and Henderson combined to see Henderson crash over under the posts, Arkle converting to give a final score of 12-48.

MOTM once again went to Darren Dickinson who is currently in excellent form.

On Good Friday Ash are at home to Alnwick 2nds in the County Senior Plate semi-final, KO 7pm and Ash 2nds are away to Percy Park, KO 7pm.