Morpeth RFC lose to Northern but are guaranteed third place in the league

Promotion will go down to the season’s final Saturday, with Boro visiting West Hartlepool and Northern away to Consett.

Morpeth are guaranteed third spot in what has been an excellent season and a significant improvement from 2023-24.

On Saturday, Morpeth were thoroughly beaten by the better side – many of Northern’s scores came from Morpeth’s inability to keep possession.

Another poor lineout day and regular turnover ball became the platform for attack and provided the home side with many of their scoring opportunities.

It was a sign of things to come when after a minute Morpeth lost possession, the ball was kicked to the corner and only scrambled defence prevented a home score from the ensuing attacking lineout.

It took 10 minutes before Northern opened the scoring with an unconverted try.

For the next 10 minutes Morpeth just about held their own, with Ryan Shaw causing problems by taking the ball at pace. However, on 20 minutes Morpeth suffered a setback when prop Carl Hill was sinbinned for a high tackle.

Despite hanging on, the second try seemed inevitable. On 28 minutes, an excellent home lineout, followed by a set wrap-around move, saw a clear overlap created for a really good score.

As the half moved to a close, Morpeth began to put some phases together, prompted by skipper Jack Elliott.

This all came to an end when an aimless kick ahead saw possession lost, allowing an excellent home counter-attack from 70 metres for an unconverted score.

The sides went in at half time with Northern 19-0 ahead.

The second half sprang into life on 48 minutes with a super Callum Burgess break that was finally halted just outside the Northern 22. Again the ball was lost by Morpeth and another super set piece back move created the inevitable overlap for a converted Northern score.

Morpeth rallied with their only score on 51 minutes.

A quickly taken penalty by Elliott provided the springboard before Ben Jackson powered over for Harvey Gillie to convert.

Further converted home tries followed in the 58th and 63rd minutes as Northern put the game to bed.

Final score 40-7.