Upper Eden gave up their chance of County Cup glory to concentrate on saving their League status – and the decision looked sound after a 34-20 win over Morpeth.
It was the first ever encounter between the two clubs and Eden had numerous regulars unavailable or mossing through injury.
In the end, for what appeared to be a must-win game for the Cumbrians, this was a great five-point addition to their bid for Regional Two North survival. With five League games remaining, three are at home – which could be crucial.
Eden started strongly and drove into the visitors’ 22 where they dominated the first 15 minutes of the game.
Fly-half Rupert Civil was pulling the strings, and they were rewarded with a fine try in the corner by Liam Fox, with Oli Rose narrowly missing the conversion.
Morpeth hit back through their speedy backline and had Eden under pressure, resulting in the home side giving away a penalty in front of the posts which was kicked.
Eden responded almost immediately and were awarded a penalty which Rose converted to stretch their lead.
The visitors then launched a series of attacks into the Eden half, but they were thwarted by excellent defending with Matthew Sanderson, George Johnstone and Will Birkbeck to the fore.
Eden’s pack was dominating in the loose play and after a flowing move down their back line a driving maul eventually saw veteran Paul Alderson crash over for the second try which Rose converted.
Morpeth slowly began to win good ball and had Eden’s backline under constant pressure before, on 27 minutes, the winger crashed over for a fine try which their flyhalf converted.
The game ebbed and flowed and Morpeth were awarded a penalty for an infringement at the ruck and the successful kick pulled them to within two points of the home side.
Eden came back at the visitors and again their dominant pack applied intense pressure on the Morpeth line allowing prop James Birkbeck to crash over for their third try.
It was converted by Rose, giving them a 22-13 lead while just before the break Morpeth had a player sin-binned for a high tackle.
It got worse for Morpeth at the start of the second half when their scrum half was sin-binned for continuous offside infringements.
Eden capitalised with their two-an advantage and continued to dominate with outstanding efforts by new second row Jed Brewis and veteran No8 Dave Birkbeck.
Civil, although playing out of position was controlling the game with powerful runs at the Morpeth defence and he went on to win the man of the match award.
The visitors could not keep him out when he rounded their defence to score Eden’s fourth try for the bonus point, with Rose converting.
Back up to strength, the visitors came back strongly and at this stage were playing with some confidence.
They earned a penalty on Eden’s 22 metre line which they kicked to the corner and from the ensuing line-out went over for their second try in the 66th minute.
It was converted and at 29-20 it looked as though Eden were rattled and the home crowd feared the worst with yet another narrow defeat looming.
But skipper Will Birbeck rallied his team and they hit back with several barnstorming runs by centre Sam Birkbeck and fullback Dan Todd.
They had the visitors on the backfoot again but unfortunately they had young centre Josh Alderson yellow carded for a high tackle.
Despite the handicap this seemed to lift the Eden team and they just dominated the ruck and mauls to eat up valuable time.
With two minutes to go veteran Dave Birkbeck crashed over for the fifth try which rounded off a well-deserved win.
