DMPRFC 19 v MORLEY RFC 27

The weather and pitch made for perfect conditions for rugby as Park entertained league leaders Morley RFC, with the expectant home crowd perhaps anticipating a home win.

What followed did deliver a good game from a spectator’s viewpoint, but ‘points make prizes’ and on that front we did not add to our league tally, which is a disappointment.

We let ourselves down from a performance perspective, with several basic errors in the handling, defence and contact areas, something that Morley RFC did not do and that was the difference between the sides on the day. Morley RFC were not the best side we have played this season, but the fact that they get the points on the board and keep mistakes to a minimum is probably why they are top of the league

It didn’t help our case either when our kicking game faltered and ended up in the hands of their very competent fly half who appeared in the right place at the right time, every time and returned the kicks with interest.

The game started badly with the sin binning of Dan miller after six minutes for allegedly stamping and the resulting penalty was a formality for their winger who’s kicking impressed on the day.

Being down to fourteen men did not upset our flow at that time and we responded when Matty Lister evaded the defence, rounding his opposite number for a try which Ritchie Young converted.

We managed to see through the sin-binning without conceding, but then conceded three tries in the space of twenty minutes just before oranges, through costly errors and questionable defence, which is normally a plus factor of our game. All three tries were converted.

Ritchie Young added three penalties to his tally and Morley added a penalty to leave the score at 16 – 27 at oranges.

The second half failed to bother the scoreboard much after oranges, as we endeavoured to come back into contention, but a penalty from Robin Eatough was all that we could contribute to the rest of the game.

Even the sin-binning of three of their players at different times after the break did not help our cause, as we tried to narrow the gap. We did have opportunities however, but Morley RFC saw out the game to claim their victory.