First Win in 5 Games As Morpeth Find Their Feet Amid the Mud

Morpeth were faced with the worst conditions of the season when they made the trip along the A19 to Whitley Bay. Having lost their last 5 games, this was a good chance to get into the winning spirit before the Christmas fixtures.

Morpeth kicked off to being the match, and immediately started to put pressure onto the Rockcliffe men, which in something that the whole team has been lacking this season, while physically competent, the Rockcliffe pack perhaps lacked the rucking technique needed to dominate at the ruck. Morpeth began to recognize that a starting using the back line in a way that hadn’t been attempted in the games previously, even if the conditions should not have allowed free passing along the back line.

However it was the forwards that ultimately began to gain ground, and after putting pressure on the Rockcliffe defence number 8 Adam Grieve came away with the ball and scored Morpeths first points of the day. Confronting young kicker Oli Smith was a gale blowing icy rain, and he did himself no disgrace when his kick flew wide, having been blowing off course at a rate of knots.

The match got underway with the home side kicking off, and the game soon developed a pattern. Periods of attack from both sides would result in ground made, only to be given up by a dropped ball, something that was hard not to do given the lashing rain. Despite this Morpeth once again found them in a good, attack position on the Rockcliffe 22 meter line, with the ball once again in Grieves hand, who went on a run that any self-respecting back would have been proud of. Quick feet saw him step inside the first tackler, and then the second! Could he get past the third man? He continued on his line of attack which saw his tackler overrun him and Grieves went down to score in front of the posts.

This made life oh so simple for Smith, who this time made no mistake. This made the score 12-0.

The visitors collected the ball from the re-start and immediately began to move through the back, even incorporating a few moves, which is something which has been sorely lacking from their play all season. All this created space for winger Connor Nichol who went down to score in the corner and present kicker Smith with a hard task given the wind blowing directly at him. The kick was duly missed and the score progressed to 19-0.

The second half largely was transformed into a brawl in the mud, with moments of rugby played in between, and the most notable piece of action was when flanker Patrick Murphy was dominated in the tackle and managed to slid forwards by 10 metres! Any glimpse of attacking spirit was soon extinguished by the dreadful conditions.

The game was called to an early halt by the referee after one of the Rockcliffe players exited the field of play clutching a broken finger and screaming like a banshee.