Darlington Mowden Park

Mowden Under-16s were at Middlesbrough and should have won the match easily, but were thwarted by frequent spoiling play in and around the rucks and mauls by the big Middlesbrough pack. Middlesbrough opened the scoring with a penalty goal, but Mowden soon overhauled them when Chris Dodd picked up from the back of the scrum, and made a fine jinxing run to score.

In the 46th minute of the first half, Middlesbrough were awarded a penalty when Mowden caught a kick upfield, and they went in 6-5 up at half time.

A lack of concentration allowed Middlesbrough to score an early try in the second half, but again Mowden fought back to an attacking position when Daniel Alsop gathered a clearance kick and made 20m to set up a maul from which, for once, Mowden got quick ball. Jason Eliot chipped over into space for Adam Hunt to score. Thereafter, Middlesbrough resorted unchecked to their balling-killing tactics to deny Mowden the opportunity to establish any rhythm and the match petered out to end Middlesbrough 13, DMP 10.

Darlington

There has always been some strong and healthy competition between the boys of Sandal and Darlington presently playing at Under-13 level. Earlier in the season Sandal inflicted a crushing defeat as the rain lashed down on the Wakefield side's ground. At Blackwell Meadows at the weekend the home side emerged victorious.

Right from the outset Sandal's forwards looked to have the upper hand in open play, Darlington however settled early nerves when Dexter Bogle was given quick ball from the ruck. Even though in his own half he backed himself to swing wide up the left and past his opponents to score the opening try.

Shortly after the restart David Mackfall mirrored the opening try by outpacing the Sandal defence up the right wing touching the ball down under the posts for Richard Leigh to make an easy conversion. Sandal have always been resilient and today was no exception with the Sandal forwards controlling the ball the visitors edged towards the try line. Whilst the ball was prevented from reaching the Darlington backs it looked only a matter of time before Sandal would score. They eventually did following a scrum on 17 minutes with a final 5m push into the corner. Three minutes later another maul rumbled Darlington back to concede another score, this one well converted from wide out to bring the half time scores level to 12-12.

As the second half started Sandal's return from a 12 point deficit late in the first half was likely to have given them the confidence. Darlington gave it their best and prevented Sandal from driving forward as they had earlier. As Sandal found they were getting nowhere they switched play to the backs, however this made matters worse for Sandal and the home side were quick to take advantage as the backs retreated under pressure. David Mackfall, who looked dangerous every time he got the ball for Darlington, again found himself space to run scoring his second try 12 minutes in.

Flanker Josh Rainford-Blackett showed determination and closed down the Sandal stand off on several occasions spoiling quick ball for the visitors. It was following some open play where the visitors found them selves unable to get the ball to their backs that David Mackfall picked up well inside his own half, with five or six Sandal players between him and the try line it looked as though the best he could do was make 10 yards or so but with a combination of side steps and strong hand offs he found he had only the full back to beat and he did so with ease for the individual try of the match. With only a couple of minutes to go Sandal's forwards found their game again and trundled forward once again mauling the ball into the corner for the final score. Darlington 24, Sandal 17.

Win, lose or draw the games between these two sides are always hard fought. This game brought some outstanding play on both sides and everyone concerned will be looking forward to the next encounter.