Morpeth RFC 16 Middlesbrough RUFC 15

What a game we witnessed up at league leaders Morpeth on Saturday. Two good sides going at it hammer and tongs for the whole 80 minutes.

The home side were on the attack from the off, and brilliant defence from Boro kept them at bay, a superb turnover by Josh “The Rhino” Lynas enabled Boro to clear their lines but back came the hosts and opened the scoring with a penalty kick 3-0

Back come Middlesbrough with the ball in the hands of wing Rhys Kilbride, he passes it on to Jack Luke who breaks a tackle and delivers a pass out to left wing Sean Joseph who races in from all of 60m. Fly half Andrew Baggett adds the conversion 3-7

A high tackle from Boro skipper Peter Homan gains him a yellow card gives the home team numerical advantage and the use this to score next the conversion is missed 8-7

Some game this, just before Half time Morpeth score again after sustained pressure and amazing Boro defence HT 13-7

The second stanza begins and the match continues to ebb and flow, good attack being met by stout defence from both sides.

An incident on the floor sees Andrew Baggett and a Morpeth forward yellow carded

Towards the end of the sin binning Boro scrum half Jake Chalklen makes a break steps the full back and scores a try from about 40m out. With Baggett off the field a difficult conversion is missed 13-12

Both sides back up to 15 Middlesbrough win a penalty and Andrew Baggett slots it bisecting the uprights 13-15 Dare we dream of taking down the league leaders on their own patch?

Alas, no, late in the game Morpeth score a penalty of their own making the final score Morpeth RFC 16 Middlesbrough 15

What a game, in my humble opinion best team lost.

Great credit to the lads for giving their all against a decent side away from home

We also took the wasps with us and they had a close game eventually ending in a 12-12 draw

Well played everyone

Jabba