The uncharacteristically out of sorts visitors had to fall back on the right boot of Jamie Hearn to register on the scoreboard, with the hosts mean defence and high-tempo attack prevailing. But what proved a low scoring game was never dull, with both sides putting runners clean through the defences only to be called back for marginally forward passes.

The home defence coughed up plenty of first half penalties but few were in Hearn’s range due to a strong icy wind. The Saxons kicked for the corners but were uncharacteristically turned over in their early attacking lineouts, enabling DMP to relieve the pressure with high infield kicks that they chased effectively. Hearn secured a 3-0 lead when DMP’s front row stood under pressure up in the scrum after 12 minutes, but the Saxons were straight onto the back foot when lock forward Rich Stott was sinbinned for slowing down a quick tap penalty. DMP’s kicker missed his shot at goal but with the Saxons pinned in their 22 the waves of high-tempo DMP attacks finally breached the shorthanded defence when prop Appleby gathered a speculative offload to crash over.

Hearn narrowed the lead to a single point when DMP’s defence transgressed again, and the Saxons headed for the halftime changing room knowing they would enjoy second half wind advantage against a home defence whose transgressions were starting to test referee Wayne Falla’s patience. Sure enough their no.8 went for a 10 minute enforced rest for a further offence, the Saxons spurning the kick at goal to lay siege to the home goal line. But the 14 defenders raised their game and were able to successfully shut out the Saxons who were only once able to set a rolling maul that came down short of the tryline. A succession of short drives were held up before a knock on enabled DMP to clear their lines.

Disaster struck just after the hour when - in a rare 2nd half foray into the Saxons’ 22 - DMP outside half Connon managed to step inside a defender to score under the posts. The Saxons upped the tempo and finally forced a further kickable penalty with less than 5 minutes left on the clock. Hearn again obliged to put them within a score, but a frantic set of Saxons attacks were again repelled and with the clock into stoppage time a dropped pass drew the final whistle.

Director of Rugby Neil Mitchell commented ‘all credit to Mowden Park who did back to us what we’ve done to other teams this season, their defence was immense. We have to look back on a misfiring set piece – we fluffed our first 3 lineouts after setting up promising attacking platforms. We also didn’t help ourselves by being too lateral in attack. But we’re not going to be down about it, we remain confident and in a dominant position in the league albeit we’ve some big games to come’.