Though they secured a 4-try bonus point, Stour's leaky defences were but a pale shadow of the performances that had held an unbeaten home record through to February.

With Joe Bridger off to New Zealand Corey Venus slotted in to the wing next to centre Joe Heatley who moved out to accommodate scrum half Ben Tibbetts. Nathan Tilsley dropped to full back and with Luke White starting at outside half the threequarter bench cover came from Rod Petty and Chris Scott. Up front Nick Murphy’s return pushed Sam Wilkes to the bench within the squad rotation of the front rowers.

Stour kicked off in warm sunshine defending the northern end of a hard dry Stourton Park surface. Their opponents showed immediate intent by throwing the ball around, working the full width of the park before scrumhalf Matt Outson went over in the corner. 3min 0-7. They tried to repeat the trick but a forward pass gifted possession to Stour who ran it back in kind. White lined up a penalty kick, it flew wide but Stour countered from the dropout and Tibbetts worked a neat chip through the narrowside defences and regathered to score in the corner. 9 min 5-7.

Tynedale pressed their next attack down the Stour left flank, working an overlap with a chip over the final defender that the cover failed to defuse, gifting a try to centre Jack Harrison. 22min 5-12. Worse followed when the visitors secured a stray lineout throw near the Stour 22 that seemed to catch Stour’s midfield defences flatfooted, outside half Dan Taylor’s pass putting fullback James Spencer through to score near the posts. 27min 5-19. Stung into action Stour kicked a couple of penalty awards to the corner but were unable to work a catch & drive. Play ebbed & flowed at a breathless pace before flanker Billy Harding secured a penalty for holding on in the tackle, to the corner it went and centre James Otutaha’s direct run saw him across the tryline. Halftime 12-19.

Play restarted at the same tempo, Heatley haring through a gap in the visitors’ defences but the cover just held up winger Dan Rundle who had taken his offload. Tynedale worked back downfield, a wayward pass off a lineout near halfway looking innocuous but it again flatfooted Stour’s midfield, Taylor spotted the gap and tore through before finding Harrison in support to score. 48min 12-26. Stour hit straight back though when a fluffed lineout gave them a short range scrum, a set of short drives finished off by flanker Nigel Mukarati. 52min 19-26 and Stour back within a score.

Back came Tynedale with a well-executed catch & drive try for replacement Louis Frankland, 58min 19-33. Handling errors crept into Stour’s game and they shipped another try from halfway when the visitors’ centre Ash Smith shrugged off some innocuous wide tackling to burst through the first-up defences and put winger Aedan Moloney in at the corner. 66min 19-40. Stour repelled the visitors’ next attack though and worked their way patiently upfield to secure an attacking scrum from which captain Ciaran Moore crashed over to secure the bonus point. 75min 24-40.

But Tynedale were to finish the stronger, with Stour upping the pace still further to chase the game a loose pass got picked off and worked to Outson, 78min 24-47. Stour kept pressing attacks to the death but salt was rubbed into the wound when the ball when loose near the visitors’ line and the counterattack saw Smith regather his own chip ahead to score. Full time 24-52.

Stour now just have a single 2016/17 fixture remaining, this Sat on the road at South Leicester who are also assured National 2 status in 2017/18. 3pm ko.