Billingham Edge Morley

Once again, Morley did enough to win, but defensive errors spoilt the good work.

Billingham backs just took the honours with their pace and invention, but Morley performed well above their league position.

Morley faced wind and slope in the first half and were the better side despite trailing 10-12 at half time.

Hall and Marshall had made tentative runs before Chester found Ben Bell on the right. His charge took him past the first line of defenders and a good side step took him past the covering wing before ploughing over the line with two on his back after 4 minutes.

Morley had possession, but struggled to gain ground despite strong runs from Smyth and Dinsdale. A lost ball saw a quick break from halfway and the Billingham pressure eventually brought a try for prop Rob Hamer. Peter Evans edged Billingham into the lead with his conversion after 10 minutes.

Morley responded well, attacking on a wide front with good recycling from forwards and backs.
Bell and Harris pulled the Billingham defence to the left and Stevenson came into the line in a well-executed move. Although pulled down a metre short, he still managed to present the ball for Bradshaw and Marshall to retain possession and for Marshall to score on 15 minutes.

5 minutes later Billingham regained the lead as they used the wind and slope to create an overlap on their left for wing Matt Kirby to score out wide after 20 minutes.

The rest of the first half was mainly Morley although Harris did well to chase back after Billingham intercepted on their 5 m line and were only just caught on Morley’s 22. With the wind and slope in their favour, the 12-10 deficit looked to be well within Morley’s ability to pull back.

The first 10 minutes of the second half seemed to confirm this as Morley were camped in the Billingham 22. Three time Morley had the chance to take 3 easy points in front of the posts for scrum offences. Each time they chose to re-scrum as they were dominating the scrum. From the third scrum Morley thought they had scored as Sean Dadswell found Andy Funnell who went over, but Billingham were awarded a scrum for a forward pass. The scrum ended Morley’s period of dominance as they were penalised for a scrum offence and Billingham managed to get to the halfway. From there a couple of moves of very high class from stand-off Joe Evans and brother Peter Evans at fullback conjured up two converted tries to set up a 26-10 lead.

Morley still continued to play enterprising rugby and were rewarded when Stevenson ran onto a good ball from Chester. The defence closed in but he just managed to touch down despite the efforts of two defenders on 63 minutes.

5 minutes later, Billingham had the last score when Liam Armstrong finished off a good flanking move to end the scoring at 31 – 15