On a surface resembling a bog in places, a young Percy Park Lions side took on an older, more experienced Novo's.
The early exchanges were scrappy with both sides jostling for territory. Whilst the home side enjoyed the majority of the possession, Park defended stoutly, often forcing the home side into handling errors or unnecessary turnovers. It was one such turnover from which the ball was moved quickly to fly-half Morse who, in space on the left with two men outside him, was able to ghost through a gap in the Novos defence and dive in to open the scoring.
Buoyed by the 7-point cushion, Park began to put the ball through the hands and stretch their opponents who, thanks to some bone-crunching tackling from Carl Griffiths in the Lion's pack, were begin to lack ideas and momentum in possession. Griffiths himself, along with fellow lock James Grieve, were beginning to dominate the lineout. From one such lineout in the Novos half, quick ball enabled the backs to execute a set piece move. A delayed pass from centre Jon Carlile found Morse on the loop and the Park fly-half glided through the Novos defence to pick up his second try of the afternoon.
At 14-0 up, thanks to Morse twice adding the extras, the Lions hit the ground running in the second period. With less than a minute on the clock, turnover ball found its way to centre Ali Blair, who put full-back Rich Berne in space. Berne drew his man and wing Michael Baker used his pace to streak in for his first try in Park colours. Morse narrowly missed the conversion from out wide, making the score 19-0.
Park slowly began to exert more pressure with open-side Adam Ovington and scrum-half Ollie Gilmore working particularly hard around the fringes to deny the Novos scrum-half time and space. Space was something that prop Dean Ash found himself in when he made a break through a now tired Novos defence. Gilmore was quick to the breakdown and found Griffiths at pace, supported by Blair. A looping pass from the young centre found Carlile and the Lions skipper cantered in to open his try-scoring account for the season. Morse made good of the conversion attempt and, in turn, took the score to 26-0.
This was how it would remain despite the Lions beginning to play some good open rugby. Colts loose forward Robert Neesham broke from the scrum to set up a chance for winger Steven McPherson, who was tackled just short of the line, before Morse crossed in the opposite corner for his hat-trick try, only to be adjudged to have crossed the touchline in the process.
Lions coach Paul Jobson was pleased with the display, especially given the difficult conditions. Whilst the attack was stifled slightly by the wet ball, some of the defensive work was outstanding, as demonstrated by managing to keep the home side scoreless. It will be interesting to see how much damage this Lions backline can do in dry conditions.
Next week, Percy Park Lions play host Blaydon III at Preston Avenue. Kick off is at 3pm and all those spectators not travelling to Sunderland are invited to enjoy the facilities (including the new balcony) at Percy Park, with the promise of some entertaining rugby to be had.