What nobody expected though was a squall of biblical proportion that blew in from the North West just 20 minutes before kickoff. With the surface already saturated the melting hail nowhere to go and sizeable tracts of the playing surface disappeared under ice cold surface water.

In fact the only dry thing on sight was the humour of the 2 captains as they lined up to respect a pre-match minutes silence in honour of past President Jeff Bishop. They stood either side of a puddle developing on the halfway line 15m in from the clubhouse touchline, leaving referee Brendan McGaffney and his assistants little option but to stand in it and suffer the horrible feeling of cold water seeping into their boots. Jeff would doubtless have had a chuckle at that.

Despite the conditions both sides managed to string handling movements together, and though Tigers enjoyed superiority in the lineout the Saxons' bossed both scrum and maul phases, providing their threequarters a wealth of front-foot ball to work with. The Saxons’ bonus point victory was boosted by news of results elsewhere and they are now just 3 league points behind leaders Darlington Mowden Park in a breakaway pack of 3 teams heading up National 2 North.

With Nathan Bressington & Drew Harper rested, Jamie Hearn & Ciaran Moore returned to the starting lineup while 2nd rows Robbie Hurrell & Nile Dacres continued their recuperation from injury. Chris Depper returned to his more familiar starting berth at no.8, the only other squad change from Preston being Sione Tu’ipolotu’s return on the bench.

First on the scoreboard was centre Stefan Shillingford, the ball going through the hands of Eji Uzoigwe and Ben Hughes after a scrambled Tigers clearance kick was run back at them by scrum half Pete White.

A late hit on fullback Tom Jarvis preceded a Saxons’ attacking lineout, deft exchanges between outside half Sam Robinson, Shillingford & Jarvis defying the greasy conditions to put Robinson through for his first score of the season.

Tigers’ attacking options started to dry up as their scrum was going backwards at pace while the Saxons’ defensive lines stopped them on the front foot. Another infield clearance was run back at them, a penalty was kicked to the corner and man of the match Nigel Mukarati latched onto a driving maul to emerge from a heap of bodies to claim the 3rd try.

A penalty try was awarded from an early 2nd half scrum infringement on Tigers’ line, Mukarati then getting on the scoresheet again as another all-in short range maul was driven over Tigers line. With the bonus point victory secured the Saxons rang the changes and emptied the bench, Tigers claiming a late consolation try from a driving maul of their own. Full time 31-7.

Coach Mike Umaga observed ‘considering the conditions the boys stuck to task really well today, the forwards worked particularly hard and were dominant. Pete White had another excellent game but today’s victory was fought out up front where Nigel Mukarati’s efforts stood out.