Reshuffled Ashington RFC hang on for well-deserved win

Ashington started well, and on five minutes good link play from the new half back pairing of Dan Simpson and Owen Hayton saw Ewan Dodgson race into the corner to give Ashington a 5-0 lead.

The home team were bossing the game, but failed to take advantage of their dominant scrum before losing both Ian Brierley and Jacob Simmons for 10 minutes in the sin bin.

Westoe took advantage immediately, levelling the scores before taking a 5-10 lead from a lineout drive just before half time.

From the restart, skipper Greg Henderson and Brierley combined to set Andrew Reynolds away, his chip and chase resulting in a five metre scrum.

From the scrum Simpson crossed for a try only for it to be chalked off by an unsighted referee. However, the pressure told, and James Snowden cut through the defence from 15 metres to score under the posts, Hayton converting to give Ashington a 12-10 lead.

Ashington continued to press and despite having a dominant scrum, failed to score from a series of five metre scrums.

It was Simmons who finally extended Ashington’s lead, latching onto a powerful Hayton run to score near the posts, Hayton converting to make the score 19-10 with 20 minutes to play.

Ashington brought on Henry Hayes and Lewis Perrin, and had further chances to extend their lead. Unfortunately, a storming Bobby Young 30-metre break failed to bring the score it deserved, and several other chances went begging before a Westoe fight back saw the visitors pressing for a losing bonus point score in the final five minutes, with the excellent Ashington defence hanging on.

Under the circumstances, this was an excellent win, with debutant Kinloch and the lads who played out of position all playing well, but man of the match went to Henderson for his thunderous ball carrying and general leadership.

Ashington 2s had an impressive 29-26 win against Alnwick 3s, scoring in the final minutes to seal the victory.

Ashington are at home to Barnard Castle on Saturday.