A decent win at home for Morpeth Rugby Club's first team
Morpeth thoroughly deserved their victory against Sunderland, which came with a bonus point, but both teams and the officials deserve credit for producing a match played in the right spirit and with total commitment in difficult weather conditions.
Despite playing against the elements in the first half, the home side scored two unconverted tries within the first five minutes through good teamwork finished off by Callum Burgess for the first and Nathan Arkle for the second.
Sunderland came back into the game on 17 minutes with a converted try from a driving maul at an attacking lineout.
Morpeth made a crucial error that resulted in an intercepted try almost on the half-time whistle and this made the half-time score 10-12.
The second half began like the first. Morpeth applied considerable pressure and Ryan Shaw buried over from close range on 46 minutes.
It came after several forward drives as the home forwards showed great patience in the face of some determined Sunderland defence.
Crucially, Morpeth played the conditions. Rather than run through a couple of phases, generally they managed the game effectively, and put boot to ball as the elements dictated, with skipper Jack Elliott leading the way.
They were finally rewarded on 65 minutes. Again, it came from constant forward pressure, pick and drives, before Carl Hill crashed over for a score by the posts.
Harvey Gillie converted the try to make the final score 22-12.