Having played against the elements first half they turned round with a seven point deficit that was clawed back and then overtaken as they turned the screw on their opponents. Pretty it may not have been, effective it most certainly was.

The Saxons conceded a soft early try when Sione Tu’ipolotu’s chargedown bounced into the hands of a Preston threequarter who linked neatly with his supporting team mates to the left enabling lock forward Gareth Gore to barge through the fringe defenders with barely 2 minutes on the clock.

Jamie Hearn hit back with a penalty when Preston were caught offside, but Preston’s fullback Sean Taylor took advantage of the wind to stretch the lead with three penalties from four attempts over the next 20 minutes as the Saxons transgressed in range of their posts, a dangerous tackle also costing centre Gary Dipple 10 minutes in the sinbin.

Having won the better of the early scrum exchanges the Saxons’ pack drove the disintegrating Preston pack off their own ball on the half hour. The penalty was kicked to the corner and Preston lost a defender to the sinbin for not rolling away at the tackle as the Saxons sent waves of attacks hammering into their goal line defences. Inevitably the pressure told and it was tighthead prop Mark George who emerged from the bottom of a maul that was driven over the line from a Robbie Hurrell lineout take.

With Hearn converting the lead was down to 4 points with just a couple of minutes left to halftime, but the Saxons inadvisedly tried to run the restart into the wind and conceded a penalty in front of the sticks for holding on at the tackle. Taylor duly converted, making the halftime score 10-17.

Preston coughed up early 2nd half possession in their own half, their defences just holding out the Saxons’ counter but only at the cost of another sinbinning for a cynical offside. The Saxons opted for a 5m scrum, the Preston tighthead prop buckled under the pressure and referee Rob Warburton had no hesitation in awarding a penalty try, Hearn converting to level the scores.

The Saxons looked to have contained the next Preston attack, but replacement Caolan Ryan’s attempted clearance kick was charged down by ‘hoppers replacement flanker Andrew Napier who won the footrace to ground the ball as it rebounded deep into the Saxons’ in goal.

Hearn pulled back 3 points with a penalty following another visitors’ scrum indiscretion, but Preston managed to defend the slim lead until just after the hour mark when the Saxons were again able to deploy their attacking scrum in the Preston 22. Three times they buckled, Mr Waburton losing patience and sinbinning their replacement prop in the process. Eventually the Saxons opted to move the ball wide where fullback Sam Baker was able to force his way through the wide left cover to re-take the lead.

With just 3 minutes left on the clock Preston conceded another scrum penalty that Ryan kicked to the corner in the chase for the try bonus point. The throw found Ben Hughes at the tail, the outside backs piled into the maul which was driven forward but pulled down illegally just short of the line. Mr Warburton again had no hesitation in awarding the penalty try. Hearn converted, final score 32-22.

A word of credit is appropriate for the match officials, whose positive and pragmatic game management - despite a heavy penalty count - enabled the Saxons to utilise their dominant scrummage as an attacking platform.

Coach Mike Umaga commented “We looked to have started where we left off last week, with inaccuracies in our play due maybe to the weather or the pressure on us to deliver. But we kept ourselves in the game, it would have been an awful lot harder to pull it back had we not scored the try just before half time. The boys knew where & when to focus and showed a lot of character, you can’t ask much more as a coach. My man of the match was Sione Tu’ipolotu who drew from experience to manage our 2nd half play, keeping the point of attack up front where we were dominant”.

The Saxons are now 5 league points ahead of Hull Ionians who have a game in hand but crucially have recorded more wins. There will be no let up as they target nothing less than bonus point wins from the remaining games at Westoe (Apr 20th) and at home to Bees (Apr 27th).

If you can't make it to South Shields next week, please support the Lions who have a home winner-takes-all shootout against fellow promotion contenders Newcastle-under-Lyme. Kick off is 3pm.