Acklam started their season well at Ryton, despite losing both wingers John Hall and Bradley Gator to injury in the first half they were comfortable 30 -16 winners, outscoring the home side by 5 tries to one.
Acklam attacked straight from the kick off and Ryton were penalised at the breakdown deep in their own half, but stand off Danny Ashton missed the penalty kick at goal. After Ryton missed a penalty chance of their own Acklam ran from a scrum in their own 22 putting the ball out wide to winger Hall who made ground, then great support play from the second phase resulted in a fine team try finished off by scrum half Dean Roberts. Acklam's lead was 5 nil, Ashton hitting the post with his conversion attempt. Then Acklam ran the restart kick back and more superb backing up and offloading was finished off by skipper Ben Pearson for a second try, converted to increase the lead to !2 nil. A few minutes later Ryton attacked but a great tackle by open side Louwen Labonete forced the home side to infringe at the breakdown. Acklam went down the field and an Ashton penalty made the score 15 nil to the visitors. After Ryton eventually got on the scoreboard with a penalty of their own Acklam ran a kick back to launch another attack which was ended by a dangerous tackle on winger Gator, resulting in him having to go off injured and a yellow card for the offending Ryton player. Five minutes from half time Acklam pressed again and went blind from a scrum to put replacement winger Josh Sayer in for Acklam's third try and a 20 - 3 lead at the break.
Following the break Ryton picked up their performance and were able to kick two further penalties to reduce Acklam's lead. However , Acklam soon replied, with Ashton kicking wide to centre Chris Walker who ran strongly through a number of attempted tackles for Acklam's 4th try. In the 55th minute, following Ryton pressure and a number of Acklam infringements second row Paddy O'Brien was sent to the sin bin. Despite this setback the 14 men of Acklam broke away and another good run by Walker put Sayer in for his second try to stretch Acklam's lead to 30 - 9. Ryton continued to fight hard and Acklam were disappointed to eventually concede a consolation try to the home side and the game ended in a convincing 30 -16 victory for Acklam.
There were a number of very good performances by Acklam players, especially Chris Walker and man of the match Louwen Labonete.