Acklam visited North Shields for their first league game of the season and had a deserved win. Acklam were certainly the more enterprising team but where unable to take full advantage of their superior play through lack of patience. Acklam came out brightly and were trying their full repertoire of skills when they should of built the foundation blocks first. What hindered Acklam was their poor final execution of their play when scoring opportunities were available.

North Shields opened the scoring against the run of play when a innocent kick through resulted in a try, Danny Ashton converted a penalty two minutes later, 7-3. After 12 minutes Acklam played a quick penalty and Andrew Dunn from full back made a 70 meter break which should of resulted in a try. Few minutes later Dunn took a quick line out which again should of been finished off with a try. In the 17th minute Danny Ashton kicked his second penalty. Acklam at this stage of the game were playing too much rugby in their own half which was dangerous as they were making too many unforced errors. In the 35th minute North Shields scored a good try from a line out 30 meters out and through some good support play they scored under the posts. Acklam's defence was partially to blame as the defensive line was slow in coming up to meet the attack. H.T. 14 v 6.

The second half Acklam took control of the game as they scored 26 points to no reply. Danny Ashton kicked a penalty in the 41st minute. John Morgan had another fine game at No. 8 and he scored from a 5 meter scrum after 47 minutes. In the 52nd minute Acklam played some really clever rugby with good inter passing but once again the final pass went astray. However shortly afterwards Ben Pearson scored a try which resulted from a 5 meter scrum. In the 65th minute Marcus Sudron efforts payed off when he scored the third try after some really good interplay. The all important bonus try came in the 75th minute when Danny Ashton scored after two 5 meter scrums on the Shield's line. Lineout and scrummage was excellent, another fine performance from hooker Karl Murray.

Good start to the season; Peter Judge and Patrick O'Brian brought some fresh urgency into the game when they came on during the second half. Man of the Match was Andrew Dunn, pity he misses the next three games.