Eventful first half sees Ashington RFC gift unbeaten Gateshead four tries

Gateshead scored virtually straight from the kick off, Ashington failing to deal with the kick, this failure was repeated three times in the first half, with Ashington failing to learn from their mistakes.

They also gifted a fourth try to the home side by trying a grubber kick deep in their own 22 and then failing to deal with the return kick.

In between these failures, there were flashes of excellence. A lovely backs move saw Isaac Quarry hit a perfect line through the gap and then step the covering full back to score, Tyler Hepple converting.

Hepple created Ashington’s second with a chip to hooker Will Gouldsmith loitering on the wing, who caught the ball at pace and raced in to score, again Hepple converting.

Despite these two scores, Ashington turned around 29-14 down at half time.

In a much more even second half, Ashington gave a debut to Henry Haynes and brought on Bob Young, and scored two tries to Gateshead’s one.

Joseph Fearns forced his way over after a series of rucks near the Gateshead try line, again Hepple converting. Ed Gray scored Ashington’s bonus point fourth try, outpacing the Gateshead cover to latch onto another Hepple chip through.

Ashington lacked some of last season’s aggression and cohesion as they bed in new team members. Final score 36-26.

Ashington 2nds beat Gateshead 2nds 41-17, and on Friday night the women’s touch rugby team won 8-3 away at DMP.

This Saturday (October 5) Ashington 1sts are at home to North Shields. Kick-off is 3pm.