Darlington 8 Westoe 32

THE extent of Darlington's demise was obvious within five minutes of this EDF Energy Cup qualifier, but at least the willingness to compete kept them in the game until Westoe's physical superiority prevailed.

Coach Kevin Robinson is right to label the loss of 18 players as a sad indictment of professional rugby, but if the players continue to share his enthusiasm for the amateur game he might be able to mould them into a successful North One club.

Home games against Penrith this week and Middlesbrough on September 22 will give them a clearer idea of whether they can win enough ball to pursue their desire of returning to more entertaining rugby.

There were glimpses of it on Saturday in a couple of darting runs by 18-year-old Andrew Pugh and a more direct one by his fellow centre Alex Lyneton, plus the pace of winger Adam Kibirige. But they had to work hard to create any kind of forward platform.

It did improve after being shunted around in the early stages as the scrum stopped going backwards at a high rate of knots and Andrew Harston began to win some line-out ball.

But after keeping the deficit to 10-8 until 15 minutes into the second half they coughed up possession too easily when trying to attack into the wind and suffered the consequences.

While making a substantial saving of £36,000 on the rugby budget this season, Darlington could doubtless have done with the £4,000 for getting into the senior national knockout event.

Westoe, the other beaten semi-finalists in last season's Durham Cup, pocketed that, along with a home tie against West Park St Helens on October 13 in the first round, when Darlington Mowden Park are at home to Scunthorpe.

After an early wind-assisted attack by Darlington, following which Lyneton missed a penalty, the alarm bells were ringing when Westoe won a line-out on halfway and drove 20 metres. They then broke down the middle and would have scored but for a knock-on under the posts.

Darlington reeled backwards at the resulting scrum and when the put-in was reversed Westoe's impressive winger Johna Saiman sent centre James Fitzpatrick over after five minutes.

Lyneton replied with a penalty, but then Saiman almost got to the line and Gareth Nesbitt burrowed over.

Pugh was just short after a jinking run for Darlington, then winger Liam McConnell dropped the ball with the line at his mercy. But he atoned when they seized on a loose ball on halfway to attack up the left and he turned the ball back inside for fly half and skipper Lee Richardson to score.

Some old habits die hard. Darlington even tried a penalty to the corner, with predictable results, and the old ploy of using prop Joe Oselton as a battering ram round the fringes led to the try which effectively sealed their fate after 55 minutes.

The ball was lost and Westoe snapped it up and sent lock John Younghusband over for the first of his two tries.

As the game became scrappy in the last 20 minutes, his second came from a penalty near the line, while No 8 Crane Smith drove over off the back of a scrum. Sam Firbank added two conversions and a penalty