Morpeth U16 12 - Seghill U16 10
Apr
With the home side only able to field 14 players for this U16 game, Seghill dropped an extra player to the bench, so the sides could compete on level terms.
It was the visitors who dominated play for almost the entire first half, though Morpeth defended well, it seems only a matter of time before Seghill would break through.
With Seghill winning the scrums, and driving Morpeth back, the Morpeth coaches asked for uncontested scrums, which the referee allowed, and this negated Seghill's overall advantage. However, they continued to force Morpeth back, and from a 5 metre scrum, following a Morpeth knock on, Seghill finally got the try all their possession deserved, when hooker, Andy McLean, drove over. Michael Blewitt was unable to add the conversion.
On odd decision followed, when Morpeth made a substitution, and, soon afterwards, both teams fielded 15 players.
Spurred on by falling behind, Morpeth broke into the Seghill half for the first time, and put the Seghill defence under pressure as conditions deteriorated. Fine tackling by Nick Heard, Kris Bowen and Steven Gluck saw the visors hold firm to take a 5-0 lead at the break - though after controlling most play for most of the first 40 minutes, Seghill would have hoped for a greater points advantage.
Fired up by their coaches at the interval, Morpeth came out on the attack, and finally broke through for a try under the posts, to level the score.
Seghill regained their composure and once again, dominated the next period of play, with fine runs from man of the match, John Peace, Craig Embleton, Alex Anderson on to restore the 15, and fullback, Blewitt.
As Morpeth kicked up field to clear their lines, and despite the attrocious conditions, with the snow falling heavily, Blewitt took a fine catch, dummied the tackler running in and passed to Peace on the wing, who produced another of his superb runs down the line. He was finally taken down, just on the Mopeth 5 metre line, and from the resulting ruck, the ball was passed out to Embleton, who used all his strength to hold off three defenders to drive over to score Seghill's second try of the match.
With players warned for the number of high tackles going in, punches raining down on Seghill scrum half, Craig Smith, and kicking which left Lonsdale with a gashed leg, it was a surprise that no one was sin binned, and only one Morpeth player received a warning.
With time running out, Morpeth kicked the ball forward, and Blewitt took the catch, but was forced to touch the ball down. Seghill were surprised when the referee gave a 5 metre scrum to the home side, not a kick from the 22, and with the scrums still uncontested, Morpeth passed the ball out to the right. With one on one, the Morpeth attacker felled Lonsdale with a hand off to the face, and went over to score a try, which to Seghill's dismay, the referee allowed to stand. With the conversion sucessful, Morpeth secured a narrow 12-10 victory, which left Seghill wondering how they could have dominated so much of the play and producing the more fluent passing moves, yet not left with a victory.
Seghill's misery continued, after the game. The visitors returned to the changing rooms to find it had been leking, and that clothes, shoes and bags were soaked. Not only that, but Lonsdale's bag hag been rifled through, his possessions strewn across the floor of the changing room, and money taken.
It wasn't a good day for Seghill in the snow, as the U15's also lost to Ponteland.
