THE last time Luctonians made the 600-mile round trip to Corbridge, they found the pitch under eight feet of water as Storm Desmond turned Tynedale Park into a watery wasteland.

Just a week shy of its anniversary, it looked as though they might have had another wasted trip from Hereford at the weekend as the thermometer registered -5C with the pitch looking like white iron.

However, the watery sun was just strong enough to make the pitch playable by lunchtime, and a thrilling game ensued.

By the final whistle, Tynedale had made it three wins on the bounce and claimed maximum points, but it was a close run thing.

While there were thrills aplenty, Tynedale once again kicked away way too much possession. And while the defence was typically exemplary, there were some awful missed tackles that could have proved costly.

For the first 20 minutes, Tynedale hardly laid a hand on the ball as Luctonians mounted wave after wave of attacks which should have brought them more than the lone unconverted try from hooker Joseph Street from a solid forward drive.

The game was 21 minutes old before Tynedale got into the Luctonians 22, where they were awarded a penalty in front of the posts. They chose to kick to touch - and lost the lineout.

On 23 minutes though, a quickly taken penalty by the impressive Scott Powell set up centre Will Miller for an imperious charge, and after swatting away tacklers like King Kong, he put in full back Ash Smith for the equalising unconverted try.

Parity lasted just three minutes with Luctonians centre Alex Smith taking advantage of some poor tackling to romp in under the posts for scrum half Louis Silver to convert.

Virtually straight from the restart, Miller was involved again in a slick move which saw hooker Jamie Blamire come in at a great angle to touch down under the sticks, for Smith to equalise from the tee with half an hour gone.

It remained 12-12 at the break, but the visitors came out fired up for the second half and they took advantage of more missed tackles to allow winger Rhyan Scott-Young to score in the corner just three minutes in.

The pendulum then swung back Tynedale’s way as a fine break by fly half Dan Taylor set up the opportunity for winger Oli Walker to score an excellent try, superbly converted by Smith to put Tynedale in front for the first time with 50 minutes gone.

Smith extended the lead with a penalty on 56 minutes, but this heralded a 15-minute spell of terrific pressure from the visitors. Then Matty Outson galloped from his own line to the Luctonians 22, to set up the second try for Blamire on 70 minutes, with Smith’s conversion taking the score to 29-17 and breaking Hereford hearts.

Luctonians were not finished, though, and a superb scrum saw them gallop over the line to clinch their own bonus point try through prop Kyle Garner. Silver converted.

Replacement prop Dan Lowdon was yellow carded at the scrum, and Tynedale had to hang on for a nail-biting last few minutes.

Tynedale try to make it four wins in a row on Saturday when they go down to Yorkshire to take on Sheffield Tigers, who are three places and 12 points below them.