Winger Ross McNeill scored a hat-trick for Middlesbrough as a 41-5 home win against struggling Altrincham-Kersal took them into sixth place in North One.

Lack of size counts against Mc- Neill in tight situations, but he showed how well he can finish given a little space, having a lot to do for his second try in particular.

After Simon Moore gave Boro the lead with an easy penalty, a breakaway try put the visitors ahead. But McNeill's first and a try by skipper Dave Richardson were both converted from the touchline by Moore, then McNeill scored again for a 22-5 interval lead.

Hooker Richard Horton was driven over from a line-out on the resumption and after a flat half hour McNeill completed his treble and scrum half Peter Wright went through the middle and beat the full back to score from 35 metres. Moore added his fourth conversion.

Martin Howe, who had been rested, went on at centre for the last 20 minutes and Lee Rust, back after injury, replaced fly half Paul Lee in the second half.