Boro rub salt in wounds

THE wheel has turned full circle, with the sort of scoreline which might have been expected 20 years ago underlining how Darlington’s period in the ascendancy has hit the helter-skelter.

Boro must ensure that their brand new clubhouse, which has already proved an attraction, is not such a drain on resources as that at Blackwell Meadows.

The cost of staying afloat persuaded Darlington drastically to cut their rugby expenditure, and traditionally the town has never produced as much rugby talent as Middlesbrough.

The only members of the Boro team who have not come up through the colts are ex-Redcar No 8 Richie Barker, former Yarm School centre Rob Bellerby and ex- Otley and Mowden Park flanker Matt Wright.

Five of their former players were in the Darlington side, with a possibility that Lee and Sean Richardson will be joined by the third brother, Dave.

After leaving Boro for Westoe, he has been unable to hold down a place, partly because of injury, and was among the spectators on Saturday.

With one win in North One this season, the only glimmer of hope for Darlington stems from the realisation that only two teams in total will be relegated from the four regional divisions at this level.

The obvious inference from the ambiguities in the RFU’s restructuring for next season was that two would go down from each. It seems the two teams with the worst records at level five will automatically be relegated and Darlington are the only club with one win.

If green shoots could be detected when they lost only 9-3 at home to Boro in the Intermediate Cup last month, they have already withered.

One of the few surviving stalwarts from National Three North days, prop Joe Oselton, was absent with a back injury and Darlington simply cannot afford to be without key men.

Middlesbrough product Lee Davies showed flashes of his talent at full back for Darlington and they will have to consider playing him in his original position of fly half.

The experiment of playing young Tim Tombling there was abandoned after 30 minutes, with Charlie Catterall going on to add some spark, even if some of his passing looked rusty.

Among the Boro youngsters who impressed was Rory Duff.

A prop in the junior sides, he cannot play in the front row at this level until he reaches 18 later this year, but he looked perfectly at home at blind side.

It was after he was harshly sin-binned towards the end of the first half that Darlington briefly stemmed the tide.

Lee Richardson’s try reduced the half-time deficit to 15-5 and they attacked again after the break. Ex- Marine Will Armstrong capped a promising debut with a burst up the middle, which would have produced a try had lively centre Andrew Pugh been able to hang on to the flanker’s pass.

But the ball went to ground, Boro swept to the other end for scrum half Peter Wright to score the first of his two tries and Darlington were sunk.

They conceded two interception tries, the first opening the scoring when North Under 19s winger Peter Homan ran 75 metres unopposed to score after ten minutes.

Prop Isa Warsama was driven over from a line-out for the second try before Pugh showed his class for Darlington, first with a trysaving tackle then a dazzling break.

But, like most of the home moves, this one ended with the ball being given away and Boro fly half Simon O’Farrell followed his own break by landing the first of his three penalties.

Just prior to Richardson’s try in the right corner prop Dave Tunstead appeared to have made the line for Darlington.

But when he had to retire in the second half, hooker Rob Goddard had to go back on at prop, conceding about 8st to his opposite number.

Peter Wright first nipped over from a quickly-taken penalty, then from a ruck on the 22, when no-one laid a hand on him.

O’Farrell intercepted on halfway for the fifth try and landed his third conversion after lock Iain Bradford crashed over from a quicklytaken penalty.