This was a must win game for Morpeth who took heart from the return of Paul Mooney to the centre and fly half Jinks back in the number 10 berth. The game as a whole was a poor spectacle ,however ,Morpeth came away with the points but it was a mighty close run thing against a team that has also struggled for results so far this term.

It was young second row Jonny Stephenson who showed up really well early on making inroads into the Durham defence and it was from a Stephenson thrust that caused a penalty to be conceded that Jinks nonchantly knocked over to make it 3-0 to the home side after 10 minutes. Durham then came back into the match and deservedly drew level with a penalty of their own. This lead was increased with a converted try to make the score 10-3 for Durham.

It remained that way until a couple of minutes from the break when for the first time sustained Morpeth pressure from a 5 metre scrum enabled No 8 Morrison to crash over Jinks duly converted to make the half time score 10-10.

Morpeth increased their lead 15 metres into the second half when Morrison again took the ball forward and after the ball was recycled a few times winger Stu Hills broke through to score a try ,Jinks converted ; Morpeth 17-10 up. Durham then came back into the game ,winning alot of ball ,and eventually were rewarded with a try. The try was not converted so Morpeth held a slender 2 point lead.

With the game ebbing away from Durham, Morpeth started to retain the ball and winger Hills ,who had a prominent role in injury time ,again crossing the line with the referee awarding the try only for the Durham linesman to signal for a "contentious" foot in touch. From the resultant play Hills injured his ankle and was strechered off. Morpeth hung on with Durham conceding a penalty ,leaving Jinks to find touch to finish the game.

Morpeth are on their travels next week with a trip to Hartlepool Rovers and then a home game against Ilkley before the festive break.