It was a brilliant performance by Morley in the sunshine at Scatcherd Lane which lead to a 7-try thrashing of second placed Bridlington. No doubt Colin and Mark B will be pointing out areas where mistakes were made and improvements can be made, but to the less critical home supporters, Saturday was a wonderful day!

The foundations were laid by a dominant pack in which the front row of Dan Percival, Jacob Percival and Greg Jones led the way. The locks Brown and Hannam did all the grunt work without complaint and backrow trio of Flegg, Bradley and Green were powerful in both attack and defence with both Bradley and Green having time to score a try each.

Joe Firth started his first game for the club at scrum half and fitted seamlessly into the Morley game plan. Chester pulled the strings from standoff and benefitted from the large amount of possession provided to unleash the backs time and time again in an exciting game of rugby.

The different styles of play from centres Ellis and Baylis – battering ram and locksmith – were both effective to unpick the Bridlington defence whilst Bridlington struggled all match to cope with the pace and guile of Turner, Graham and Isherwood. There was no respite for the visitors even when Morley rotated the replacement bench and Tom Wall, Bradley Freeman and Richard Knowles all kept the Maroons going forward. Knowles picked up an excellent try on the left wing.

Morley gave notice of their attacking intent when Isherwood fielded a long kick by Bridlington and set off up field. Scott Turner made ground up the left wing before the unlikely pairing of Dan Percival and Harrison Baylis took the ball up the right wing with wing Johnnie Graham going over after only 3 minutes for the first try of his hat-trick. Brid were penalised on the re-start but a lack of concentration and two silly penalties gave Bridlington an attacking line out from which they scored their only points of the day with lock Wes Langkilde going over on 8 minutes.

However, that was a minor blip in Morley’s performance and Isherwood restored Morley’s lead 7 minutes later after he kicked a penalty in front of the sticks following a beautiful jinking run. This put Morley back in front 8 – 5 on 15 minutes.

Morley were now in a confident mood and patient build up from the backs gave Graham his second try. He shrugged off one tackle on the Brid 22 and outpaced the covering defence to score on the touch line. This time Isherwood was able to convert the try and put Morley into a 15 – 5 lead after 23 minutes.

By now the Morley pack had worn down the opposition, despite Hannam spending 10 minutes in the bin for not releasing. Scott Turner transformed defence into attack after the Brid pack had been shunted backwards off their own ball. A try looked imminent but the Brid defence just manage to recover in time. Isherwood was denied a try by a last ditch tackle on the other wing as Morley sought to turn pressure into points.

The last 5 minutes of the first half saw the Brid line under siege. Pressure from Firth and Bradley forced a 5m scrum to Morley. After 2 further scrums following Brid penalties, the Maroon pack eventually pushed the visitor's pack back over their line and Nick Green dropped on the ball to score to end the half 20 – 5 in Morley’s favour.

Morley continued the second half in the same manner as the first with the forwards dominating the scrum and Morley’s aggressive defence causing Bridlington problems as they tried to get out of their 22.

The bonus point try came from Scott Turner who brushed off one tackle and went over the try line despite the attention of 3 would be defenders on 54 minutes.

Morley returned to the Brid 22 straight from the restart and fierce defending prevented Bridlington exiting. The pressure turned into possession as Baylis intercepted and sent Graham away for a quick sprint for this hat trick try on 57 minutes.

Bridlington’s heads started going down a little after this double shock and when Hannam released Richard Knowles on the halfway line he was able to sprint down the left wing to score Morley’s sixth try on 61 minutes.

Bridlington belatedly started to put some phases of play together and were unlucky not to get points following a good run by No. 8, Dewi Roberts, from a mid-field ruck. A poor kick out of defence by Morley led to an enterprising run down the stand side, but Morley scrambled to clear.

A series of penalties and a yellow card to Firth for offside hampered Morley at this stage, but they weathered the storm and hit back in the final minutes. Graham almost combined with Isherwood to score, but Isherwood was pulled back for a forward pass.

However, Morley finished with try number 7, when Luke Bradley evaded a tackle and ran in 20m to score under the sticks. Isherwood converted and the referee blew for time.

Morley did not appear to have any injuries and will look to continue their winning run next week. Percy Park are the visitors to Scatcherd Lane next Saturday for a match which kicks off at 3.00pm.

Percy Park are one point and one place below Morley. On Saturday they had a morale boosting 48 – 21 home victory over Consett. They have also beaten Pocklington, West Leeds and Huddersfield at home but fallen to York, Driffield and Morpeth when on their travels.