Morpeth RFC beaten by a well-drilled Percy Park team
Morpeth succumbed to their second successive league defeat in a game played on a very damp November afternoon.
The league campaign is almost approaching the halfway mark and the current side find themselves in a very congested mid-table position.
Their longstanding rivals Percy Park have enjoyed both the joy of promotion as well as the disappointment of relegation over the past two seasons, so a stiff test was anticipated.
The game was hard fought, but the visitors deserved to win. The platform for the victory was Park’s driving maul from an attacking lineout.
Park’s tries in the third and 21st minutes came from this popular and well rehearsed tactic. It proved the catalyst for their win with a heavier set of forwards proving more than a match for the home side.
Due to the difficult conditions good handling was a prerequisite, but the Morpeth backs did themselves few favours with dropped passes and a tendency to stand too far apart.
The first try, which was always going to be important, went to Park on three minutes with an unconverted effort.
The home side hit back almost immediately when, on six minutes, Ryan Shaw went over with a typical storming run to equalise.
The wet conditions were naturally dominating affairs, with forwards dominating almost all aspects of play. The well-organised Percy Park pack had the better of the matters with two more converted tries on 13 and 21 minutes to increase their lead to 5-19.
Back came the home side with Josh Williams forcing his way over for an unconverted score on 27 minutes, and better was to come for the home side when Jake McKay knocked over penalty shortly before half time, to make the score 13-19 after the first 40 minutes.
It was soon after half time that the match was ultimately decided. Park took control with two more converted tries on 49 and 61 minutes to take the score out to 13-33, and out of reach for the home side, who nevertheless showed good spirit with the last try of the game when second row Ben Jackson went over for a try that McKay converted to make the final score 20-33.
Next week’s match sees Morpeth make the short journey to high-flying Northern.
Scoops Man of the match – Elliott Clark.