IT was World Cup final day when Darlington Mowden Park played away to today's visitors, Dudley Kingswinford, and Tom McLaren remembers it well.

Although born in Scotland, the 24-year-old Mowden No 8 was only a few weeks old when his parents moved to Australia, where he got into the senior national sevens squad before returning to Britain.

"I still have an Australian accent, but I've been claiming to be Scottish since the World Cup," he said. "The final was the closest match I have ever seen.

"It was excellent for rugby in general and particularly for England. It has certainly given me a lot more to do."

McLaren is the assistant development officer for rugby in Newcastle, where part of his job includes coaching a new team called West End, based at All Saints College in West Denton.

"They lost every match last year, but have won three or four this season, and we are also getting a junior section established," he said. "I also go into schools in the west end of Newcastle and the World Cup has created a lot more interest."

McLaren won the Player of the Month award for December in National Three North, which he claims is a reward for the team's excellent run.

The trip to Dudley on November 22 started Mowden's run of seven successive wins and they should make it eight today (2pm kick-off) before facing the two sides above them, Waterloo and Halifax, over the next two weeks.

McLaren played Sydney first grade rugby for Penrith Emus before returning to his roots to play a season of professional rugby in Glasgow.

"When I finished there I went back to Australia, but the opportunity came up to play for Blaydon and my girl friend had always wanted to live in England so we decided to give it a go. I had only been there a couple of months when I was lucky enough to get this job.

"I got on well with the people at Blaydon and still have a lot of friends there, but I thought I would have a better opportunity to develop my game at Mowden.

"It has given me the chance to play for Newcastle Falcons second team and it has also been good for me playing with Richard Arnold in the Mowden back row.

"There's also a very good club atmosphere. Before the last home match people got to the ground at 6am to shovel snow off it, which shows the spirit in the club.

"I'm happy here and at the moment I think I will be staying next season. If we keep the players we have got I can see Mowden being promoted next year.

"We have a tough couple of weeks coming up and that will be a good indicator of the progress we have made."

Dave Richardson has declared himself fit and returns at fly half today, so Martyn Bray reverts to inside centre with Chris Strong dropping back to the bench.

Andy Foreman has recovered from the calf injury he suffered last week, but Chris Mattison still gets the chance to return on the other wing in place of Chris Machin.

Jonny Boatman replaces the injured Arnold at open side, while back row cover on the bench is provided by Tim Wilks, a regular in the side before he went back-packing round the world.

Darlington take an unchanged team to Kendal, whose double over Tynedale has left them looking more secure than might be expected considering their hammerings in league and cup at Mowden.

They also lost 27-10 at Darlington, who have had a relatively injury-free run compared with Tynedale, who welcome four players back for the visit of Preston but still have eight first team squad men injured.

Full back Phil Belgian is the latest casualty with a hamstring injury, but winger Guy Beaumont makes his first appearance since a pre-season game and the Murray brothers, Jamie and Andrew, return to the pack, along with flanker Grant Rastall.

There are no league programmes below national level today, but Morpeth play their rearranged match against York in North Two East and Northallerton entertain leaders Castleford in Yorkshire Three.