SATURDAY'S scoreline may not reflect the fact that Acklam Park has seen better days. But it certainly didn't harm the general feeling that a resurgence is underway.

Plans for a new clubhouse, financed by the sale of land, adorn the lounge walls and the rugby club continues to produce good, young players.

The colts entertain London Irish in the National Cup quarter-finals next Sunday, while most of the first team are under 25.

"This club will always have a go," said coach John Moore. "We need to avoid relegation then we will move forward.

"We have lost five games we would have won if we had had the experience to close them out. But we think we'll be safe if we beat Morley and Liverpool St Helens at home."

Middlesbrough are hoping Morley will have their minds on other things as their visit comes two weeks before they go to Twickenham to play Westoe in the Powergen Intermediate Cup final.

Boro moved up a place to third from the bottom, but with three to go down they need to overhaul Vale of Lune and they at least have a superior points difference thanks to Saturday's spree.

Sheffield were awful. Not only have they been overtaken in the south Yorkshire pecking order by Rotherham and Doncaster, but in these money-dominated days they have to suffer the indignity of losing players to Sheffield Tigers.

The two Sheffield clubs are four divisions apart, but next season it will be only two.

While it was all too easy, there was much to admire about Boro's fluency and every player took his opportunity to shine. That included 20-year-old replacement lock Chris Paleschi, a local lad who has spent time with the Northampton Academy.

Despite a lack of height, Boro dominated the line-out and scored three of their nine tries from this source of possession.

Their excellent front row ensured they often shunted their opponents back in the scrums, while their pick-and-drives worked well in the loose and they attacked the ball at pace.

Full back Simon Moore, the coach's son, is the veteran of the side and was always involved.

In fact, Boro had no need of a full back after building a 17-3 lead into the wind, so he spent much of the second half running affairs from No 10, with highly-rated colt Neil Baggett showing his paces further out.

Tries came every five minutes, with scrum half Peter Wright grabbing three of them, for the first 25 minutes after the interval.

Twice Wright simply used his pace to break from scrums on the 22.

For the third he took an inside pass from Baggett after good handling by the forwards up the left.

Moore scored the first and last tries, appearing on the right wing to capitalise on space created by Danny Poole for the opener.

The locks finished the two other first half tries, both initiated by pick-and-drives. Hooker Richard Horton was prominent before Ian Bradford drove over, then good blind side work ended with Dave Hinchley touching down.

Following the first of Wright's treble, Horton and flanker Ben Pattison made good ground before centre Andy Micklewright broke away and exchanged passes with Poole to score.

Line-out ball won by Paleschi produced a high-speed burst by Baggett to send skipper Gavin Fingland over, then Wright got the next two.

Finally Baggett broke up the left and Moore worked a loop with No 8 Richard McRea to score near the posts and add his fourth conversion.

Sheffield, who had opened the scoring with a penalty, finished it with a try which was very scant consolation indeed for a club in freefall.

Result: Middlesbrough 53, Sheffield 8.