IN glorious sunshine, Tynedale played some of their worst rugby of the season before a stunned shirt-sleeved crowd on Saturday.

Sloppy passing, missed tackles, schoolboy errors and comical kicking all contributed to a woeful display which saw them 16-0 down in even time against a Sheffield side in danger of relegation.

But the game turned into a real thriller, the result of which was in doubt until the final kick six minutes into injury time.

Tynedale were trailing 40-38, when they were awarded a penalty wide out, some 45 yards away from goal. It was close to the limit of centre Ash Smith’s range, but he teed the ball up, and with only the shortest of run-ups he launched the ball goalwards.

The crowd held its breath, and for a split second, the two judges looked at each other before one raised his flag, and the other swiftly followed suit.

Tynedale had snatched an unlikely win by a single point , after twice being 16 points behind.

It was a remarkable game, notable for the fact that every one of the 15 pots at goal – some from close to the touchline – was successful.

Tynedale were without talismanic skipper Matty Outson, brother Jack deputising in the number nine shirt, and free-scoring Jack Harrison was still nursing a painful dead leg. The talented James Spencer came in at full back.

There was early warning of the horrors to come right from the kick off, when the normally impeccable Scott Powell knocked on what seemed a simple ball to set the tone of the rocky horror show of the next half hour.

Mistake followed mistake and it took a very good tackle from Spencer to prevent Tigers flanker Ben Sullivan scoring an early try.

Inspired by talented full back Peter Swatkins, the Tigers took full advantage of Tynedale’s woes to go ahead with a sixth minute penalty by fly half Mark Ireland, followed by another on 11 minutes.

The Tigers ripped a great hole in the Tynedale defence on 15 minutes for Swatkins to score the opening try, Ireland’s conversion taking the score to 13-0.

Tynedale stole the ball on the Tigers’ throw at two successive line-outs, but failed to gather and eventually conceded another penalty, drilled over by Ireland for 16-0 on 21 minutes. The hosts finally started getting some decent ball, and on the half hour the burly Smith muscled his way over for a try he converted himself to get Tynedale off the mark.

Five minutes later, an inviting gap opened in front of winger Oli Walker and he needed no second invitation to stroll in for a converted try to reduce the gap to two points.

However, hopes of taking control of the game were snuffed out when an extravagant dummy sent Tigers centre Liam Wallace scorching in under the posts to give the Tigers a 23-14 half time lead.

Tynedale began the second half well, when swift hands by the home backs sent Walker in for his second converted try to again reduce the gap to two points.

Tynedale had their tails up, and sustained pressure saw them rumble over the try line, only for the referee to rule the ball had been held up.

He did, however, send Tigers number eight Steve Walker to the sin bin, and it seemed only a matter of time before Tynedale stretched away.

But once more, Tynedale threw away many chances when camped on the Tigers line, and a horribly sliced kick from midfield was gobbled up by the Tigers, who raced away to score their third try through replacement Lee Monk on the hour, Ireland again converting,

It all seemed over for Tynedale when a hack through bounced unkindly, and Wallace was there to claim his second converted try - and the four try bonus point - to give the visitors a 16 point lead for the second time with barely a quarter-of-an-hour left.

But Tynedale refused to lie down, and the exciting Rob Parker picked up a ball on halfway, and danced and dodged his way through most of the Tigers’ defence for a brilliant individual try converted by Smith.

They were still nine points adrift with time running out, until Smith banged over a low trajectory penalty from close to halfway to bring the score to 37-31.

With six minutes of normal time left, a line-out catch and drive saw the excellent Jamie Blamire power over for a try, and Smith’s conversion put Tynedale ahead for the first time.

But there was still a twist in the tale, as right on 80 minutes, Tynedale conceded a penalty 30 metres out and the excellent Ireland coolly slotted it over to put the Tigers back in front.

There had been little in the way of stoppages, but the Tigers possibly paid the penalty for some convenient injuries when down to 14 men, as they tried to keep the ball in the forwards as injury time went into the sixth minute.

Then they conceded a crucial penalty, and the remarkable Smith won the game with a kick of the highest quality.

Tynedale have Easter off but return to action at Stourbridge a week on Saturday.