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Tunstead stars as Darlington climb out of danger zone
Darlington 35 Cleckheaton 12
DARLINGTON'S discovery of a
turbo-charged prop in
Australian Dave Tunstead sent
their impressive recovery into
over-drive on Saturday.
After losing 18 players their
disastrous start to the season
seemed certain to bring a
second successive relegation,
but this win lifted them out of
North One's bottom three.
None of the others are going
down without a fight, however,
as even bottom club Penrith lost
only 12-7 away to unbeaten
leaders Kendal.
Tunstead helped Darlington
dominate the scrums and his
bullocking runs provided the
highlights of a match played in
foul conditions.
He is not the most athleticlooking
character, but he
showed a surprising turn of foot
when one of his charges took
him clear on halfway in the
second half.
On reaching the 22 he passed
to quicksilver centre Andrew
Pugh, and when he was stopped
just short Tunstead showed
remarkable agility in ensuring
that his effort was rewarded. He
was immediately on hand to
grab the ball and drive over.
That was the try which ended
any fears of a Cleckheaton
comeback after they turned
round with the gale behind
them trailing 27-0.
In truth, a fightback looked
unlikely once Darlington had
spent the first ten minutes of
the second half in visiting
territory, but when they were
pinned back an attempted
clearance was blown back to the
line and Cleckheaton scored.
The try was awarded despite
a suspicion of a knock-on, but
Darlington shored things up by
sending on bulk and experience
in the shape of Bill Smith at
lock and David Glendenning at
inside centre.
An impressive series of pickand-
drives took them almost to
the line, where Cleckheaton's
desperation produced a yellow
card and once Tunstead had
scored victory was in the bag.
It looked like being wrapped
up much earlier as Darlington
led 14-0 inside ten minutes.
A clever pass from fly half
David Andrew sent left winger
Tom Bivens on a good run deep
into the 22, and the ball was
recycled several times before
full back Evan Haigh sent Pugh
over.
Scrum half Sean Richardson
showed his class when his pace
off the mark took him through
a gap from a ruck on the 22, and
he stepped inside the full back
to go under the posts.
Darlington were a little overanxious
in their efforts to build
on the flying start and the next
half hour produced only two
penalties by Haigh, to add to his
two conversions.
Two strikes against the head
by Rob Goddard emphasised the
scrum dominance. But
Darlington failed to secure lineout
ball after two penalties to
touch, and when No 8 Tom
Wilkinson was sin-binned after
38 minutes there were still
doubts that they had done
enough.
In first half injury time,
however, Cleckheaton dropped
the ball on their 22 and Pugh
seized it to scamper over for his
second try in the right corner,
Haigh adding a good
conversion.
While local lads such as
Wilkinson, Joe Oselton, Steve
Taylor and James Knox are
playing a big part in the
improved pack performances, it
was Tunstead who stood out in
the second half.
His try made it 32-5 and there
were only ten minutes left when
Cleckheaton's game attempts to
play running rugby finally
produced a reward.
Teessider Tom Lauriston had
been unable to make much
progress at centre, but when
the left winger appeared there
in a move going right he shot
away to put the right winger
over.
With the wind dropping
towards the end, Haigh
completed the scoring with a
penalty from just outside the 22.
9:12am Monday 10th March 2008
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