Morepeth 18 Sandal 11
Sandal made the long trip to Morpeth quietly confident that they could complete a first away win of the season but sadly returned empty handed.
On a playing surface that was in surprisingly good condition following the recent flooding in the town, Sandal made the much better start and were three points to the good after only four minutes of play when the home defence were penalised on their 22 metre line and Tom Smith was successful with the kick at goal.
Sandal immediately pressed again and only frantic defence prevented a further score for Sandal. The home defence did not hold out for long. Morpeth attempted to attack from deep only to run into solid Sandal defence in the form of Jon Dix and Danny Mitchell who stopped the attack and turned the ball over. Sandal quickly recycled the ball and fly half Tom Smith kicked to the left hand corner where Simon Frewin controlled the ball and beat the cover to score. The conversion was missed but Sandal had an eight point lead after ten minutes play.
Soon after however, fly half Tom Smith was injured in a tackle and had to be helped off the field. The reorganisation saw Chris Reakes move to fly half, Simon Frewin to full back and Alex Orr come on to the left wing. The disruption this caused broke Sandal’s momentum and the home fly half Matthew Jinks reduced the lead when he kick a simple penalty when Sandal were caught offside. Jinks quickly missed a second penalty from long range but made amends on 20 minutes when he was successful with his third attempt at goal when a Sandal player was penalised for not releasing. This was actually the final score of the first half but not the end of the action.
Sandal continued to press with Morpeth preventing at least one, possibly two tries being scored, by giving away penalties in kickable positions. Unfortunately, neither opportunity was taken and this was to prove to be Sandal’s downfall in the final reckoning. A total of five penalties were missed during the game.
On 25 minutes, right winger Dave Ell cut inside and took a heavy tackle which resulted in him being carried off the field with what proved to be a fractured lower right leg. The ten minute hold up allowed Morpeth to regroup and take some of the sting out of Sandal’s play. As a result of the injury to Ell, back rower Stef Lig found himself playing the remainder of the game on the right wing with experienced forward Lee Norris joining the fray.
The second half saw no further tries scored but Morpeth’s Jinks kicked four further penalties with only one success from Sandal’s Chris Reakes. Sandal often made wrong decisions in the second half with far too many silly penalties being given away. The Sandal team were frustrated on the day by a team with a little more experience. The disruption that was caused by the injuries to Smith and Ell had a major impact on the game. The breaks in play that resulted did not allow Sandal to build any momentum in their play and Morpeth took full advantage.
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