Seaham get bonus point victory at Brinkburn

Seaham claimed a superb 43-23 victory at South Shields to get their season up and running.

Seaham were a little slow out of the blocks and allowed their hosts to shade possession in the opening 17 minutes. This resulted in them conceding a brace of penalties which were both slotted to see the Shieldsmen lead 6-0.

Within a minute of the restart, Seaham skipper John Dixon picked from the base of a scrum and tore through a gap in the Shields defence. He was tackled short of the line but Brad Smith took a pass and crossed for a try. Conor Jones converted for Seaham to lead 7-6.

The hosts had an opportunity to regain the lead on 21 minutes with a 30-metre penalty but their fly half drifted wide of the mark.

Seaham extended their lead on the half-hour when winger Ian Chapman ended a flowing move to cross in the corner.

Three minutes later, powerful centre Jack Adamson took a Jonny Foster pass and sold the home defence an outrageous dummy before touching down under the posts. Jones' second conversion made it 19-6.

Chapman rounded off the half with a fourth try after his forwards piled the pressure on and made the home defence tackle like demons. The ball was eventually shipped out to the lively winger and he touched down for the try bonus point.

The Harbour Lads scored try number five in the 44th minute when Jack Adamson ghosted through another gap in the Shields defence to touch down for his second try. Jones' third conversion made it 31-6.

Craig Gilmour crashed over for try number six. Jones' conversion made it 38-6.

Matty Fisher saw yellow for not rolling away at a ruck and the hosts capitalised with two tries and an added conversion in his absence to narrow the deficit to 38-18.

Shields eventually registered try number three two minutes from the end but it was a former South Shields player who was to have the last laugh when winger Michael Stephenson outpaced his old team mates to touch down.