NEWCASTLE Falcons have confirmed that Fijian winger Rupeni Caucaunibuca was one of the players Rob Andrew and Jonny Wilkinson went to see on their visit to New Zealand last week.

The player known as Caucau, one of the stars of the World Cup, is currently playing for Auckland in the Super 12 but has expressed an interest in playing in Europe.

The Newcastle duo also spoke to former New Zealand sevens player Craig Newby about a possible return to Kingston Park, where he helped in the battle against relegation in the second half of last season.

Newby, a flanker, also made an appearance for Darlington Mowden Park, who rubber-stamped the survival of neighbours Darlington in National Three North by winning 24-19 at Liverpool St Helens on Saturday.

Ahead of next week's clash at Crow Trees, Mowden moved three points clear of Blaydon in the battle for third place.

For once Mowden owed it to their backs as their depleted pack was under pressure for most of the game and they looked beaten at 12-7 down after 64 minutes.

But they suddenly scored two tries in quick succession from moves starting in their own half, then broke away to score again three minutes from time.

Injuries forced Mowden to start with utility player Chris Strong at blind side and press Kelekolio Paino and Mark Bedworth into service on the bench, although neither was fully fit.

Both had to go on, with Paino taking a non-tackling role in the back row after 52 minutes when Strong was switched to form an unlikely second row alliance with Ian Keeligan.

The prop had been switched after 32 minutes when Ian Robinson retired with a neck injury, and Paino had to go on when Jon Dye was pulled down at a line-out and suffered a knee injury.

Little wonder that Mowden struggled up front, but the backs looked dangerous whenever they were given quick ball.

They opened the scoring with a converted try after ten minutes when scrum half Richard Holborough put winger Suka Hufanga away and the Tongan drew his man before sending fly half Dave Richardson under the posts.

Two minutes later Richardson crossed again from an identical move, but was unable to get the ball down.

The hosts soon took command and although they managed only one penalty before the break three more followed as Mowden defended desperately.

The turning point came when Mowden won a line-out and Richardson, Gareth Kerr and Andy Foreman combined superbly before winger Pedro Salahshouri did well to squeeze in at the corner.

It was the former Stockton player's first try for the club and it levelled the score at 12-12.

Almost from the restart Mowden won another line-out and from ten metres inside his own half Holborough danced through seven tackles to score.

Bedworth converted and with three minutes left another good move allowed Richardson to score the final try.

Liverpool took three quick penalties before trundling over near the posts and added the conversion with the last kick of the game.

Darlington won their Durham Cup tie at Westoe 54-3, despite the plucky home pack matching them in the scrums.

After leaving out regular kicker Mark Butler, Darlington found a more than adequate deputy in David Haswell, who scored 25 of their 35 points in the first half on his return to his home club.

He converted all five tries, two of which he scored himself with the rest coming from the back row.

Westoe took an early 3-0 lead but Darlington quickly went ahead when Haswell snapped up a Paul Lee chip and sent Martin Howe over. The other flanker, Andy Carphin, scored the next when a penalty was moved left to right and any one of four players could have touched down.

After 20 minutes No 8 Del Lewis broke from the back of a scrum to score and the first of Haswell's brace also came from a five-metre scrum.

He then flung himself to reach a Paul Lee kick just before the ball went dead, the conversion making it 35-3 at half-time.

Darlington sent on David Andrew in the second half, with Rob Stewart going on to the wing, and there was a further reshuffle when Haswell went off with cramp and Richard Lang was given a chance at fly half.

They went off the boil for 20 minutes before Craig Lee set up a try for full back Graham Haswell, then Carphin scored his second and replacement prop Joe Oselton finished off a driving maul.

Blaydon cruised into the cup final with a 46-0 home win against West Hartlepool, with No 8 Matt Cook scoring a second-half hat-trick.

West lost Andrew Davies, who was stretchered off after a try-saving tackle, so his season could be over irrespective of the result of his disciplinary hearing tonight.

Fly half Dan Clappison kicked a penalty and converted tries by Sam Walton and Luke Wattam to give Blaydon a 17-0 interval lead.

Cook stormed in from 30 metres for his first try, then broke from a maul to drive over and completed his hat-trick from a tap penalty.

Wattam grabbed a second try and Clappison added two more conversions.

Durham City won 27-18 at home to Ryton to reach the Durham Intermediate Cup final and will face Billingham, who beat Gateshead 20-15.