Darlington Mowden Park have four players in the Newcastle Falcons Development squad for tonight’s match at Worcester.
Prop Ralph Appleby, who has featured before, will be joined by prolific winger Robin Eatough and youngsters Liam Riley and George McGuigan.
Flanker Riley has made his first senior appearances off the bench in Mowden’s last two games, while hooker McGuigan has only just turned 18 and has been too young to play in the front row at senior level.
He has played for Ireland Under-18s, but he lives locally and is considered to have a very bright future.
Mowden were left kicking themselves on Saturday after letting slip a 20-3 lead at Lymm to lose 22-20. With the second and third teams in National Three North both losing, Mowden could have stayed in contention for the promotion play-off place, but slipped below Rossendale into fifth spot.
They were finally beaten by a breakaway try when they lost the ball five metres from the line and Lymm hacked on to score, adding the conversion to clinch victory.
They were surprised to find there were only five minutes left, with the referee playing no added time, and although they battered away at the line they couldn’t get over.
Although they didn’t have the best of the first half, Mowden led 5-3 through a try by Appleby, who forced his way over after six phases.
They were much improved after the break and forged ahead through tries by lock Michael Forde and winger Charlie Masarella, plus a conversion and penalty by Gavin Painter.
But a couple of injuries disrupted Mowden and Lymm peeled off the front of a lineout to squeeze in at the corner after 58 minutes.
A similar try ten minutes later was converted, but Mowden regained control only to concede the breakaway try.
The alarm bells were ringing for Blaydon when a 27-5 lead against Blackheath was whittled down to 27-24 in a National One game they simply couldn’t afford to lose.
But after spending 15 minutes defending heroically full back Ed Yarnton broke away to score a converted try .
It sealed a 34-24 win and gave them the four-try bonus point, which took them one ahead of Sedgley Park and Wharfedale in National One, who both helped to ease Blaydon’s plight by losing at home.
Bottom club Launceston’s 12-10 win at Wharfedale was the biggest shock, but most importantly for Blaydon they are seven points clear of the third bottom club with a game in hand as Redruth were thrashed at Cambridge.
If both Cornish clubs go down it will ease some of the travelling expenses for the North-East duo, with Tynedale showing they are firmly established at this level by moving into sixth place through a 65-30 win at Sedgley Park.
They also underlined their strength in depth as fringe players Sam Shires and Barney Maddison scored two tries each. The total tally was 11 tries as Tynedale scored five without reply in a blistering last 20 minutes.
Playing downwind, Blaydon made a cracking start against Blackheath, despite struggling to contain a massive pack in the mauls.
Centre Matt Clarke was again outstanding and winger Kevin McShane put in some powerful runs as they built their lead.
Fly half Andrew Baggett kicked an early penalty then set up centre Paddy Dias, who split the defence to score.
Skipper Matt Hall then scored twice in two minutes, showing his versatility as he first bulldozed over then sold two dummies for the second.
Baggett converted all three tries for a 24-0 lead after 18 minutes and added a penalty after a Blackheath flanker scored.
With less than a minute to go to half-time the visitors paid a rare visit to the home 22 and were awarded a penalty try for a ruck infringement on the line.
Blackheath added two more tries in the first 20 minutes of the second half to get the gap down to three points, although they lost dangerous winger Tyson Lewis after he scored the fourth.
They spurned the chance to kick a penalty and paid the price as Blaydon resolutely kept them out then Yarnton broke from his own half and finished off the move under the posts.
Westoe slipped to third in National Two North when they lost 53-24 away to Fylde, despite keeping the leaders out for the first 22 minutes.
Centre James Clark showed his paces to race in from 35 metres to give Westoe the lead, but they trailed 21-5 until hooker Richard Thirkell finished off a line-out drive just before half-time.
Fylde added five tries after the break, punctuated by one for Westoe centre David Haswell before flanker Joe Maw earned the four-try bonus point just before the end.
The consolation for Westoe was that they remain ahead of Loughborough Students, who lost at Huddersfield.
West Hartlepool will have to clinch the North One East title without skipper Jonny Boatman, who broke a leg midway through the first half in the 39-15 win at Carlisle.
Andrew Davies, back from suspension, took over the leadership as West overcame spirited hosts, who briefly led in the first half and twice were level.
Andrew Foreman’s quick penalty set up the first try for Dan Boatman, but after losing his brother West fell 10-7 behind.
Stuart Waites kicked a penalty for West, who ran the next one for Gareth Foreman to score, only for Carlisle to reply shortly after the break to make it 15-15.
Two tries from catch and drives, finished off by Andrew Foreman and Tom Dixon, put West in control and they added two more from long range in the last six minutes through Colin Cheslin and Waites.
Darlington took advantage of Gateshead’s week off to take over at the top of Durham and Northumberland One with a 54-10 win away to bottom club Redcar.
With a changed side from the previous week the visitors never really found any fluidity and were unable to sustain long periods of pressure, at one point conceding 13 successive penalties.
Winger Danny Anderson, back from university, scored twice and his brother Chris once on his first start in the back row.
Mark Baldwin, Joe Oselton, Connor Elser and Henry Carver also touched down and there was a penalty try plus seven conversions from Nick Baldwin.
A young and combative Redcar side continually asked questions of the leaders and were rewarded with two tries.
Stockton fielded a depleted pack and struggled up front at Ryton, but still managed to win three strikes against the head and emerged with a 29-23 win.
The pick of their four tries came just before half-time, giving them a 19-6 lead. Quick passing on the blind side found Simon Crozier, who chipped ahead and followed up to score.
The other tries came from Anthony Parkinson, Dan Phinn and Tom Jeffery, with Jeremy Good adding three conversions and a penalty.
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