A minutes silence was impeccably observed by both sides in memory of Boro Secretary Don Brydon who passed away last weekend. A thoroughly top man who will be missed by us all.
The game started and Boro got on the scoreboard early when No8 Ollie Hodgson caught the ball in a line out taking the ball on and a cheeky reverse pass puts Toby Tremlett over to score, Brendan Hill knocks over the extras 0-7.
A series of forages into the Boro 22 sees Salem kick a penalty 3-7.
Scrum to Boro, a planned move sees Pete Homan break the defensive line and run in from Halfway, con good 7-14.
A great defensive clearance kick from Shay Barritt bounces over the last man and on regathering he is swamped by the kicker and Homan, who turnover the ball allowing it to be popped out to Josh “Lyno the Rhino” Lynas to score. The con is added That is the last action of the first half 3-21 at the break.
Early on in the second half wing Brendan Hill joins an elite list of Boro players to have scored 100 tries finishing off a move from left to right under the cross bar. He kicks the con 3-28.
Salem are starting to come into the game more now and score 10-28.
Tails up now Salem recover a Boro fumble and run it in from halfway 15-28.
Boro then come close with Hill looking for try 101 unlucky for him he was adjudged to have put a foot in touch. What was worse for Boro, Salem win the lineout and go down the other end to score 20-28.
Penalties exchanged Salem, Boro, then Salem again 26-31.
Boro are then awarded a very kickable penalty but they elect to go for a line out which they win. After a few phases of play Aedan Moloney scores a try and Hill converts giving us a final score of Bradford Salem 26 Middlesbrough 38.
This win away from home sets us up with a two legged next round tie against Rochdale first leg away at their place on Saturday 26th April with the return leg at Acklam Park on 3rd May.
A special mention for Patrick McArdle who got off the bench to make his first team debut. as you can see from the image below. Patrick made sure he introduced himself to the opposition. Well done and congratualtions.
Today we kick off up at Morpeth in glorious sunshine, 5 minutes in and the home side open the scoring 7-0 they add to this with a superb individual effort from their wing 12-0.
15 mins in and a great run from Aaron Lawes from his own half sets up a score for Reece McDonald, Will Deeks adds the con 12-7.
5 mins later Boro forwards and backs interplay create some room for Lawes to cut in for a super try Deeks adds the con as we take the lead 12-14.
Morpeth then score again and kick the goal 19-14.
Just before half time Boro draw level with a try out wide for Ross Bishop making it all level 19 all at HT.
Handling errors from Boro allow Morpeth to score again 26-19.
Lawes then scores a super individual try 26-24.
Sam Peerey-Gill then gets over the line for Boro but the referee doesn’t see him ground the ball. This leads to a drop out from Morpeth from this Boro move the ball well and centre Mcdonald scores his second con good 26-31.
Morpeth then draw level on 65 minutes with a try 31 all.
It’s all Morpeth now with them camped in the Boro redzone, a loose pass picked up by Lawes who runs in from 80m to win the game for Boro.
Final score 31-38
