Playing in near perfect conditions with bright sunshine and a gentle breeze blowing across the field, two evenly matched sides produced an entertaining hard fought league game which could have been won by both sides right up to the closing stages.
Tynedale took the lead after 12 minutes through the classy centre Zak Pearce who caused problems all through the game with his powerful, line breaking runs, who, after a fine break by scrum half Andy Harvey,from turnover ball in their own 22, was on hand to receive the ball to score a well worked try.
The centurions continued to dominate play for the next few minutes with the front three of Owen Loughead, Ed Craney and Owen Shield dominating up front and the second row pairing of James sample Callum Pollack winning some great lineout ball. The visitors then began to come back into the contest and were rewarded with a converted try on 25 mins to take a two point lead. The game continued to ebb and flow with good bursts from Andy Loughead and Charlie Rutherford being thwarted by some good defensive work by the Morpeth defence, before Morpeth extended their lead with another converted try.
With five minutes to go before half time, Tynedale got themselves back into the game, when after good work by Callum Howden, the impressive Joe Johnson burst through the Morpeth defence to score a try out wide, leaving the score 10 - 14 at half time
The visitors scored a try just after the restart when some shoddy defence by the home side allowed them to extend their lead. This gave the confidence, and they dominated the next period of play and were only kept out by strong defending with Jake Sloan and Alex Walton putting in some great tackles to thwart the Morpeth onslaught. Unfortunately they could not prevent Morpeth from scoring again when a long kick was touched down with the visiting winger winning the footrace to the line.
This seemed to spur the home side into action and with Oliver Shrimpton and Simon Candy, James Webb all working hard after coming on as replacements they got right back into the game when the impressive centre Micky Hall completed a flowing move to bring the Tynedale side to within a converted try with adam Todhunter adding the extra two points with the conversion.
Unfortunately the next score went to the away side and the converted try killed off the game but both sides were competitive until the final whistle but the result went the way of the Morpeth team.
Despite a good performance from the Centurions a lack of match practice and changes in the squad due to injuries and work commitments went against them but the attitude and commitment carried them through and they continue to progress as a side, more time together as a squad and this team will gel together and results will improve...