Clappison leads way as Blaydon left to fly the flag

Darlington lost 24-5 at Macclesfield, Westoe were beaten 29-10 at home to Wharfedale and Tynedale were outclassed at Moseley, losing 59-24.

Blaydon could not have had a longer trip than to their Coventry-based hosts, but they clearly had the easiest task against a side two levels below them.

It was one-way traffic as they scored 31 unanswered points in the second half, fly half Dan Clappison finishing with a tally of 25 from two tries, six conversions and a penalty.

Blaydon scored nine tries in total, centre Sua Segi bursting through for the first after three minutes and and the last just before full-time.

Also among the scorers was ex-Northern player David Kay, who was preferred at scrum half to Nick Williams, and Director of Rugby Nick Gandy, who took the place of broken leg victim Matt Dehaty on the wing.

Gandy made way for Jamaican Mike Sutherland in the second half and he also touched down on his senior debut.

Full back Michael Campbell raced over from halfway and hooker Matt Hall also scored.

After their good start to the season Darlington have problems to address in training this week after losing to the team they beat 53-18 at home last month.

They have kicked only one goal in the last three matches and teams have grown wise to their tactic of falling back on the driving maul.

Darlington came up through the leagues by playing expansive rugby but felt they needed to tighten up in National Three North and may now have gone too far down that road.

"Macclesfield kept pulling the maul down and we had a chat with the referee about it afterwards because we've got him again shortly," said player-coach Craig Lee.

"But we can't afford to be one-dimensional. We have to be more clinical when we get close to the line and we will have to work on it.

"We tried to change things in the second half, but there was some poor decision-making in critical areas and too many dropped passes."

Although crooked line-out throwing didn't help, Richard Snowball had his usual excellent game at lock and No 8 Alan Brown again played well.

Lee Davies performed competently at fly half in the absence of Paul Lee, but plans to let him take over the goal-kicking in the second half didn't materialise as there were no further opportunities with much of the play confined to midfield.

A reshuffle in the second half saw Davies go to full back, with James Beattie and Phil Dawson at centre and former Hartlepool player Stuart Palmer going on for his debut in the back row.

After Macclesfield scored an early converted try Darlington had 70 per cent of the ball in the first half but in a game of tight defences there was no further score.

The hosts landed a penalty after half-time, then Darlington managed to drive prop Joe Oselton over with 25 minutes left.

But as they kept trying to find a way through they conceded a try when they dropped the ball in midfield and Macclesfield broke away to score again.

Former Darlington Mowden Park player Mark Bedworth gave a 100 per cent kicking display with five penalties and two conversions for Wharfedale at Westoe.

The visitors were lucky to lead 9-5 at half-time, full back Vinny Bell scoring for Westoe, but then a break by Bedworth set up Wharfedale's first try and they pulled away. Home flanker Jonathan Okwe-Pearson scored a late try.

Tynedale quickly conceded a try at Moseley then came back through a brilliant effort by full back Will Massey, only to be over-run.

The League Two leaders scored six tries by half-time and nine in total, four of them when yellow cards had reduced Tynedale to 14 men.

Powergen Intermediate Cup holders Morley, the unbeaten leaders of North One, will fancy another trip to Twickenham and were too strong for Durham City, winning 37-3 at Hollow Drift.

Morley dominated in the loose and spread the ball wide whenever they could, scoring several of their five tries from third or fourth phase possession.

Former Newcastle student Peter Murphy opened the scoring with a seventh minute penalty and added another in the second half, plus three conversions.

City's points came from a James Walker penalty just after half-time, when the score was 22-0.

Middlesbrough scraped through to the third round by winning 8-0 at Malton and Norton in a game littered with mistakes.

They were in full control early on and led after ten minutes through a penalty by Simon Moore. He missed two other chances, as did his opposing fly half, and it remained 3-0 until 15 minutes from time.

Scrum half Peter Wright broke down the blind side from 35 metres and found flanker Gavin Fingland on his shoulder to take the scoring pass.

The only other North-East team to progress were West Hartlepool, who won 24-5 at Huddersfield YMCA.

Martin Todd made a lively return on the left wing, playing a big part in the first two tries and scoring the third as West built a 17-0 lead inside half an hour.

Flanker Jonny Boatman scored the first try from a ruck following Todd's break, then scrum half David Tighe dived over.

A break by full back James Masshedar led to the third, Tighe providing the pass to Todd, who put in a grubber kick to beat the full back to the line.

Tighe converted and was again on target following a late try by Darren Thomas.

Horden led 14-10 at half-time at Keighley but lost 22-19, while Hartlepool Rovers lost 26-11 at Pontefract, their only try coming from Andy Foreman.

There was some consolation for Northallerton in a 16-11 home defeat by Ripon in the Junior Vase as Steve Robinson returned to action for the last 15 minutes.

The former skipper and coach feared a neck problem had ended his career, but he and another pack stalwart, prop Nick Bainbridge, went on and made an impact.

It was too late to change the result after Ripon led 11-0 at half-time then scored a breakway try when the gap was down to 11-8. Brian Tucker kicked two penalties for Northallerton and his chip set up a try for full back Ian Townsend.

* Newcastle lock Andy Perry and Leicester prop Julian White will face an RFU disciplinary panel tomorrow night after both were sent off in Friday's 16-16 draw at Welford Road.