The RFU National Clubs Under-17s competition takes place at Broadstreet RFC, Coventry tomorrow and Mowden Park will be competing after successfully coming through the qualification process.

The first qualification round was held at Ryton at the end of March, and involved teams from County Durham, Northumbria and Cumbria. After a round-robin league, and semi-final and final knockout matches, Mowden Park qualified for the Northern Regional play-offs along with Houghton-le-Spring, Percy Park and Darlington.

The Northern Regionals took place at Preston Grasshoppers RFC on 18 April, and followed the same format of mini-leagues of four clubs playing each other over 12-minute halves, followed by semi-finals and a final.

Mowden did well to overcome a strong Percy Park squad by the slenderest of margins thanks to a penalty goal by Jason Todd, the only score in a tight match where Mowden had the upper hand. This proved the toughest match in the group stage, and was followed by wins of 15 - 5 over York RI, with tries from Andrew Woodend, Patrick Wilson and Chris Dodd, and over Doncaster by 10 - 0, with tries from Jason Elliott and Richard Littlefair.

The semi-final was a reflection of Middlesbrough's physical approach to the game. Middlesbrough gained the initiative through two penalty goals in the first half, but Mowden maintained the pressure and were finally rewarded when Keith Dodds scored under the posts and Jason Todd converted to leave the final score DMP 7, Middlesbrough 6.

As a result, Mowden Park join Driffield, who had beaten Percy Park in the other semi-final, to represent the North in the Finals against teams from London and the South-East, the South-West, and the Midlands. They will be helped on their way by generous sponsorship from Darlington Building Society, whose kind donation will help to defray the expenses of travel and an overnight stay.