On a lovely spring afternoon in the North East, Tynedale dominated from the start with fast and open running rugby, capitalising on the visitors’ mistakes and sealing the bonus point with four tries inside the opening 20 minutes, Scottish managing a single penalty from the boot of Frankie Neale in response during that period.

The hosts’ first try came on four minutes through Gavin Beasley, which the fly half converted himself, the first of seven successful kicks during the afternoon, and five minutes later they were 14-0 ahead after full back James Hoyle crossed over.

Although Neale pulled back three points before the quarter hour, the respite was short-lived as the Tynedale onslaught continued, with the Scottish players also apparently rattled by what appeared to be a bad injury to Charlie Broughton that resulted in the right wing being stretchered off.

Tynedale took advantage of the visitors’ disarray, scrum half Harry Peck claiming his first try of the match following a tap penalty, and adding a second just three minutes later as the Tynedale scrum pushed their Scottish counterparts back.

Scottish belatedly tried to get into the game, enjoying their first decent spell of the match, but their efforts were frustrated just after the half hour when Grant Beasley scored in the right-hand corner after his fellow Jamie Murray had intercepted, Gavin Beasley converting his brother’s try.

With five minutes remaining of the first half, Scottish scored the first of their three tries, Neale touching down after some good play from Stuart Peel and Gary Trueman, on as a replacement for Broughton, with the full back adding the conversion, making the score 35-10 to Tynedale at the interval.

Within seven minutes of the restart, however, Tynedale had restored their advantage, Peck claiming his hat trick after being fed by No. 8 Greg Irvine, Gavin Beasley making it six out of six with his conversion kick.

On 53 minutes, Peel got his name on the scoresheet, Neale again adding the conversion, but within moments Tynedale had hit back again after winger Peter Cole latched on to a cross-field kick from Scottish fly half James Brown.

Scottish once more hit back through a Rory Damant try following good interplay between the backs, but that proved to be the visitors’ last score of the afternoon as Tynedale once more stepped up a gear, claiming two late tries through winger Charlie Ingall and replacement Andrew Hall for a resounding 59-22 win.

With third placed Launceston beating Wharfedale 38-24 at home yesterday to move within six points of second place, Scottish will need to get back to winning ways next week as they complete their home league programme with the visit of Blackheath to the Athletic Ground. The South East London side will be looking for revenge after losing the teams’ previous meeting this season in an enthralling game that finished 31-30.

While it remains to be seen whether the financial problems being experienced by a number of clubs in The Championship may yet see the second-placed club in National League One promoted, yesterday’s results confirm that short of an unexpected points deduction, Esher, who are 15 points clear and have three games in hand, seem set to return to the second tier of English rugby next season.

Match report by Simon MacMichael with thanks to Ian Aitken