THE Under-13s made a trip to South Shields to play Westoe. Everywhere this Darlington age group travel it is noticeable how much bigger and well developed the opposition are and this was no exception.

Westoe's forwards pushed on in the opening minutes without success before the Darlington backs ran the ball back into the Westoe 22. Scott Starling emerged from a maul to dubiously put the ball down and the referee awarded the try.

Westoe were soon back on top with two tries of their own and a should have had a third when Darlington refused to touch one of their own restarts that hadn't gone 10m, unfortunately Westoe did play it and ran through beyond the try line only to drop the ball before grounding it.

The strong wind was making conversions difficult but Westoe managed to gain two extra points from one of their tries making the half time score 12-5 to Westoe.

The second half started better for Darlington. Ali Carr continued to put in tackle after tackle on the wing and Josh Rainford-Blacket did the same at number 8. A break down the right wing was supported well by John Dawson and he scored, although a little too close to the corner flag for Jack Stapleton to make the conversion.

Darlington gained the lead ten minutes later following a scrum just inside the Westoe half. Scrum-half Paul Smith breaking single-handedly up the narrow side to take the five points. Again this was too close to the corner for any hope of a successful conversion.

Darlington appeared to be gaining the upper-hand when Paul Smith put John Dawson under pressure with a pass that bounced at his feet whilst he collected safely the subsequent pass was cleanly intercepted by a Westoe player who must have come from close to the off side line, he romped up the pitch to score under the posts and the kick was successful. Darlington were now four points behind with only three minutes to play. From an attempted clearance to touch the Westoe kick stayed infield and Ali Carr raced up the left touch line. Under pressure he dived for the line only to find that he had only made it to the 5m line. The ball was put into touch and the referee blew for full time. An evenly match contest with only two conversions from under the posts separating the score, which finished 19-15 to Westoe