Middlesbrough 13 Morpeth 26
We return to Le Parc du Acklam with a top of the table clash, with us in second place and old foes Morpeth leading the Regional 2 North league.
In blustery conditions, to say the least, the game started with the away team camped in Boro’s 22. Wave after wave of attack was repelled on the line by the home sides stout defence, these lads put a shift in today. eventually Morpeth decide to pass the ball wide and this leads to full back Aedan Moloney intercepting and running the length of the field to score under the posts, Andrew Baggett conversion made it 7-0
Shortly after this Aedan attempts to receive a quick line out and stumbles over the referee injuring his leg and giving a 1st XV debut to scrum half Jake Chalklen with Matthew Todd taking Aedan’s place at the back.
Hammer and tongs again by both teams, up and down, to and fro, an even-Steven contest. A Boro scrum on halfway is pushed back by Morpeth and the ball ends up in their No 8’s hands who strides up the field only to be halted yards from the line by a high tackle and the referee awards a penalty try 7-7
Middlesbrough bounce back and attack sees Andrew Baggett slot a penalty 10-7
On the stroke of half time Morpeth score a converted try making it 10-14 at the break
Morpeth come out on the attack in the second stanza scoring a converted try 10-21
This is countered by an Andrew Baggett penalty13-21
Try as they might our hometown heroes could not penetrate the stout defence from Morpeth and the away side score the final points of the game with a try out wide Middlesbrough 13 Morpeth 26
It was ace to see so many supporters come out to witness this cracking game of rugby.
Next week we travel over to Carlisle for our third trip to Cumbria this season

Jabba