BLAYDON are expecting flanker Ben Morris to be involved with Newcastle Falcons next week and took him off early in the second half on the way to an outstanding 37- 15 win at Coventry.

With the Falcons on LV Cup duty over the next two weeks, Blaydon are also unlikely to see any more of Zach Kibirige ahead of his England Under 20 appearances.

Switched from full back to wing after Tom Jeffrey was injured in training, Kibirige bagged his usual brace of tries in front of a crowd of 1,300.

Coventry’s only previous home defeat had been by one point against Rosslyn Park, but they were comfortably overtaken by a Blaydon side continuing their relentless rise since losing their first four games.

Coventry started well and kicked a penalty, but the Blaydon pack got on top and the young backs also looked sharp, notably centre Tom Penny.

No 8 Jason Smithson finished a catch-and-drive then Kibirige fielded a Coventry kick 60 metres out and put in a chip of his own before sheer speed took him to the line.

He also had a simple finish following good handling on the way to a 15-8 half-time lead.

Penny and full back Nathan Bailey cut through to finish more good moves by the backs following forward pressure, and Andrew Baggett followed his first conversion with a penalty.

He was also on target after Morris’s replacement, Harry Bate, finished off a driving maul and Blaydon led 37-8 until Coventry scored in the last minute.

There were four tries for winger Shaun McCartney in Darlington Mowden Park’s 53-10 win away to National Two North’s bottom club, Dudley Kingswinford.

Mowden rested six of the previous week’s pack, giving starts in the front row to Ross White and Ben Simpson, while Glen Young and Chris Campbell returned to the second row and Jack Allcock and Ollie Hodgson to the back row.

One of the survivors, prop Ralph Appleby, crashed over in the fourth minute and by the 25th minute Mowden had added five more.

Centre Cameron Mitchell waltzed over before McCartney bagged an 11-minute hattrick then Chris Peace, back in the starting line-up at centre, scored the sixth.

Max Connon, who was tried at fly half with Mike Wood at full back, kicked four conversions for a 38-10 half-time lead.

McCartney’s fourth was followed by a brace for scrum half A J Smith.

West Hartlepool produced a very committed performance to repel the threat from promotion rivals Rochdale in a 27-12 home win, which kept them in third place in North One East.

Both sides began with attacking intentions and home winger Scott Butcher scored the first try from an 80-metre interception.

Stu Waites converted and added a penalty after 20 minutes before a Rochdale lock was sin-binned. The West pack drove to the line and No 8 Sam Miller was about to touch down when a defender ran round to kick the ball away from his feet. A penalty try was awarded and West led 17-0 at half-time.

Waites added another penalty before Rochdale came back with a pushover try.

Then Waites chipped through a gap and re-gathered to go under the posts, adding his third conversion for a 27-5 lead. The four-try bonus point proved elusive against a strong side who scored the final try in the 73rd minute.

Middlesbrough remain next to the bottom after losing 29-5 at Pocklington, again conceding most of the points in the first half.

Four tries put Pocklington 22-0 up, one of them coming from an interception and another resulting from Boro dropping the ball when in sight of the line.

There was a lock of quality, rather than effort, in Boro’s play and their one try came from lock James Wardle as they held their own in the second half.

Durham and Northumberland One leaders Horden won 30-24 at home to Gateshead, while their nearest rivals slipped up.

Durham City lost 17-5 at Guisborough and Darlington were thrashed 55-12 at Medicals, who had sounded a warning by winning at Hartlepool Rovers the previous week.

Stockton won 28-10 at home to Gosforth, who had the better of the first half hour and led 10-3. Jeremy Good’s second and third penalties either side of half-time got the gap down to one and Stockton went ahead when replacement centre Danny Wilson finished a fine move.

Under increasing pressure, Gosforth had a man in the bin when Brian Thwaites and Simon Crozier scored in the last ten minutes, with Dan Phinn adding the conversions.

Young centre Joe Hargreaves had an excellent game.

Bishop Auckland had ten players injured or unavailable and slipped into bottom spot when they lost 42-6 to Consett.

Tim Tombling kicked two penalties for Bishops, who had 18-year-old Rhys Jary making his debut in the back row alongside star player Andrew Clement.

Club captain Paul Fletcher made his comeback after injury in the second team, forming a second row partnership with a combined age of 106 with Larvin Clement.

  • Newcastle Falcons prop Scott Wilson is the only player from north of Leicester to be named in England Saxons’ 25-man training squad to face the O2 Ireland Wolfhounds at Gloucester on Saturday.