Tynedale kicked off the first half and once the ball entered Morpeth territory it seemed to stay there indefinitely.Despite Morpeth defending well, they could not get the ball out of their own half and were also unable to take advantage of what possession they gained from Tynedale infringements.
The wind was also against them and the relentless pressure from the Tynedale team allowed them no room to move. The breakthrough eventually came on the 15 minute mark following a good session of forward play as the ball was fed to the backs and out to the wing with Tim Parkin crossing the line near the corner for a try.
Louis Nwoso-Hope's conversion attempt was unsuccessful with the wind playing a big part in diverting the balls flight.
Morpeth's restart failed to cross the 10 metre line however Tynedale played the ball and took the game straight back into Morpeth territory. The play stayed there, despite simple handling errors by Tynedale giving away possession to Morpeth who were again unable to take advantage of this.
It wasn't long before the inevitable second Tynedale try came from a fantastic power run from No.8 Stephen Fiddaman, breaking a number of tackles to place the ball down under the posts. This time there was no mistake in the conversion by Louis Nwoso-Hope.
Pressurised forward power and quick passing by the backs again managed to unlock the Morpeth defence with Tynedale's Tim Parkin scoring another try. Morpeth were pleased to hear the half time whistle.
The second half saw Morpeth move up a gear, take the ball into the Tynedale half and keep it there for quite some time. The Tynedale pack seemed to have lost its direction, but Morpeth's attack lacked the dominance of Tynedale's first half display.
Resolute defending by Tynedale continued to frustrate Morpeth and it was not long before a move from well inside the Tynedale 22 saw Louis Nwoso-Hope break away with the ball. After entering Morpeth's half, he still had three men to pass with support miles behind. He dummied one defender and survived two tackles to sprint the remainder of the pitch to score a try in between the posts. He was unable to convert his own try, due probably to the now strong headwind.
On a couple of occasions Morpeth threatened to penetrate the Tynedale defence and when one of their huge second row players broke with the ball and looked certain to score it was left to the smallest Tynedale player, full back Tomas Lowton, to bring him down in a head-to-head resembling that of David and Goliath.
Tynedale Team included Saimon Mills, Alex Fitton, Angus White, Jonathan Hardwick, Will Brown, Adam Telfer, Douglas Harding, Ben Ridley, Michael Barnett, Stephen Fiddaman, Ridley Browell Alex Bruce, Louis Nwoso-Hope, Tim Parkin, Joseph Harms, Louis Thompson, Matthew Varley, Charlie Dunham, George Sloan, Daniel Matthews, Tomas Lowton
End of October Report
Tynedale Rugby Club mini juniors under-14's squad have enjoyed good early season form this autumn. Sponsored by Patterson Ford, some new recruits have taken the size of the group to around 30 players, giving the coaches some tough selection decisions. After a September spent training, the first fixture was against Gosforth.
The full strength team played out a first session scoring early through a Huw Oliver try and Finlay Magowan conversion, then holding out with decent defence for a 7-0 advantage. Wholesale changes gave some fringe players a taste of action, but the defence started leaking inevitably and Gosforth, who had maintained their starting XV, ran in a few scores.
The next game on a fine day saw Tynedale play perhaps their best attacking rugby of the autumn in a 38-19 defeat of Durham City. There were three tries from Huw Oliver (an unstoppable winger on this form), one from the rumbustious James Clarke, and two from skipper Finlay Magowan, who also stroked over four conversions.
On then to Percy Park, normally formidable opponents, but strangely weakened this season as Tyne ran away with this one 43-0. The most encouraging aspect was the spread of tries round the team, with touchdowns from Will Ritchie, Ben Dancer, new centre James Eedles and Jonjo Williams-his first for four years apparently!--- amongst others.
Finally a tough encounter against Consett last Sunday went down to the wire.Tynedale leaked a score in the first minute but struck back well with tries from Magowan (2) and Clarke. Consett also bagged two more scores and the game was evenly poised at 17-17 going into the last quarter. The ball was worked to Oliver who scrambled over. Magowan slotted his second kick of the day for a 24-17 victory.
The extra session for reserves also provided a pleasing win, proving some strength in depth in the squad. The pack are providing a fair share of possession with Will Ralph, Davey Usher, Alastair Crawford, Charlie Maddison, Dan Lansley and Charlie Harvey doing some unglamorous graft to allow the more free ranging players to run in the scores.
Behind the scrum Will Ritchie and Ben Dancer are forging an effective half back link, Tom Robb and James Eedles a strong running/tackling centre combination, and new boy Will Smith is a willing winger.
Areas for improvement include the scrummaging, perhaps a little more application to low tackling, and a tendency to lose soft tries by running the ball from deep defence. But as the results show, these are more than compensated for by the strike power in the team. It has been a sound start to the season with hopefully more to come.