Morpeth 2nd XV 66 - 0 Novos 2nd XV

“Tough day at the office” was overheard in several conversations in the clubhouse when describing Saturday’s match against Morpeth, with the pitch, weather and our opposition forming a formidable triple threat.

It seemed for the second time in three games, the meet time greeted us with snow and appalling conditions, which followed us up the A1 to Morpeth. This didn’t seem to dishearten veteran Gus Graham who still rocked up in his flip flops… old before his time.

The squad we had was a bit of a hodge podge, with a mixture of 2nd team regulars, 1st teamers on the mend, 3rd teamers who bravely stepped up and missed their bus trip to Berwick, and the debutant Brendan Thomas, who given a fine welcome to Novocastrians rugby by the weather, and has fast become the most popular Welshman at the club.

However, there was undoubted talent in the team, with Gus Graham making another step towards his “inevitable first team come back” (his words not mine), Jamie Wallace making his first appearance since his stint hijacking western ships of the coast of Angola, Josh Igoe also returning to action following injury, and Carl Parkinson putting himself into the line of fire by stepping in at fly half against his former club, who complimented the natural talent of the squad.

Yet we were mindful that the performance maybe hamstrung by some notable absences that would affect the continuity of the team. For example, the likes of Alex Milton, Joe Ball and Greg Humphreyson.

We ploughed on regardless, and the warm up seemed to be slick as always with ball staying very much in hand, and lineout and patterns of play functioning well. The pre match talk was focussed on frustrating Morpeth in defence, protecting the ball in attack, minimising the offloads out of the tackle and smart game management.

From the kick off, we did well to frustrate Morpeth in attack, as they made a number of handling errors, however we were camped in our 22 and were unable to relieve the pressure. Yet our tackling was tenacious and the scrummage remained competitive. However, with Morpeth dominating territory and frustrating our attempts to clear our lines, it was only a matter of time before they scored, all they needed was a foothold in the game. Unfortunately, they found it through their driving line out, which we couldn’t live with and proved a decisive factor in the game, as we conceded from four or five of them over the course of the game.

We also could have been accused of being a bit soft around the rucks, where Morpeth’s pack made consistent inroads, however the clearest cut factor in the game was that we lacked any form of meaningful possession, and surrendered the ball after three or four phrases, often in dangerous positions. The weather can be blamed somewhat for some handling errors, however poor game management and isolating running lines were the real factors.

The game was all but lost at half time with the score at 26-0, despite showing our most spirited defence in the last ten minute of half, with huge tackles coming from Shaun O’Connell, and Matt Freeman as well as strong midfield defence through Ben Melrose and the Parkinsons.

Morpeth were unrelenting, and credit must go to their attack, as did not let up for the 80 minutes, and quickly regain momentum after scoring each try. The score line became almost irrelevant to us in the second half, as we battled for pride and positives to take out of the game, and the spirit shown was incredible despite the continued barrage.

It was a noticeable the improvement compared to the Alnwick game where heads dropped quickly, and players failed to hide their lack of desire to be on the pitch, however this couldn’t be said about the lads on Saturday.

However, despite this commitment displayed, it wasn’t enough to stem the Morpeth onslaught, and a tiring scrum, a misfiring lineout, periods of weak tackling and ill-discipline meant we continued to leak tries.

The misery was ended by the final whistle with the score at 66-0, and the post-match conversation was blunt and unapologetic, we were not good enough, however there was little point in patronising the lads if the specifics and finger pointing.
All that could be done was look to the future and draw a line underneath it.

It was a by no means a full strength team, with a lack of depth in the front row (with no front row replacements or specialist hooker) which really let down Gus Graham, Will Doyle, & Shaun O’Connelll who battled nobly, but were facing a fresh front row at half time. Also with a change at half backs there was a lack of continuity from previous weeks, however again Carl Parkinson tried him upmost to get us on the front foot, and George Wilson must have been doing something right as his shorts were still white at the end of the game.
More positives to take from the game was seeing the blooding of Brendan Thomas who has real ball carrying ability, as well as seeing josh Igoe return from injury and Sam Busby take another step towards full fitness.

There was a number of other stand out performances from James Parkinson and Jamie Wallace, who didn’t stop running all day, as well as Matt Freeman to deserved his man of match award.

So onwards and upwards and wring out all the positives we can from the performance, and look towards securing another two cup finals and some more silverware.

Jack Spoor