NORTH-EAST rugby may have seen the last of Kevan Oliphant, who suffered a nasty knee injury in Saturday's Powergen Cup thriller.

The 35-year-old former West Hartlepool player wanted to enjoy playing for one final season without the additional responsibility of coaching Mowden.

But an hour into the fourth match he slipped awkwardly when trying to run out of his own 22 and suffered suspected ligament damage.

Mowden had just turned the tide which had seen them slip from 26-10 ahead after 23 minutes to 38-26 behind nine minutes into the second half.

The good news was that centre Matt Howland, a late call-up as Chris Mattison was unfit, marked his return with the two converted tries which secured a second round trip to Kendal on October 5.

He crashed over from short range both times, the first coming when he burst on to short pass from Oliphant three minutes before the fly half was helped off.

With Jonny Golightly proving an adequate deputy, Mowden kept the pressure on but had to wait until the second minute of injury time for Howland to score again, levelling the scores.

Mark Bedworth's fourth conversion to go with his four penalties was a formality, but as one of his conversions was from wide on the right he is starting to look a worthy goal-kicking successor to Oliphant.

There are concerns, however, that Mowden are struggling to maintain their standards for 80 minutes as for the second successive week they let the game slip for 20 minutes around half-time.

After good runs in the cup in the last three years, they almost bowed out at the first hurdle because they couldn't stop powerful Tongan centre Sengili Tuihalahaka.

Initially Mowden's own Tongan centre, Hehea Paino, looked likely to be the more effective, but once Tuihalahaka found a little bit of space he shed tacklers like Autumn leaves.

He scored three tries under the posts and totalled 28 points with five conversions and a penalty.

Mowden were in control in the first 25 minutes as hooker Chris Strong scored twice from line-outs, and Bedworth landed his four penalties.

But the Grasshoppers lived up to their name with ball in hand and after slick handling created a try for right winger Owen McKenna, Tuihalahaka staged his one-man show for 20 minutes.

Then fly half Paul Bailey split Mowden's defence down the middle and sent left-winger Oliver Viney under the posts.

Mowden sent on Richard Holbrough at scrum half for Jon Wrigley and his keenness to take quick penalties saw Howland stopped just short before he finally got over following a scrum.

Mowden's edge in the tight was strengthened when a visiting lock was sin-binned for obstruction at a tap penalty, but they failed to make it count as several chances went begging through poor handling.

Wingers Steve Jones and Scott Thompson were tackled into touch at the corners after two of the better moves, but the try Mowden had been threatening finally came.

At the death the visiting fly half was off target with an ambitious drop goal attempt when he would have been wiser to give Tuihalahaka one final run.

Result: Darlington Mowden Park 40 Preston Grasshoppers 38.