Mowden to strengthen

They will not know for certain until the end of the season whether there is to be any relegation, but Friday's decision by the RFU Council to defer a decision on increasing the leagues has rattled those in danger of going down.

If the RFU are to consult all clubs down to level ten, as they indicated, it seems unlikely they will have sufficient time to implement changes for next season.

With eight first-choice players missing Mowden were down to the bare bones and had to play Newcastle Academy flanker Eni Gesinde at centre.

Backs will be the priority as they try to beat this month's transfer deadline as the imminent return of Danny Brown, Matt Holmes and Iain Robinson should ensure they have enough forward strength to get out of trouble.

Five successive defeats are a reminder of what happened at this stage last year, but by the end of the season they were the best team in the division, even ending Halifax's unbeaten record.

Next Saturday Mowden visit Leicester Lions, who are only four points above them and have played a game more.

The Lions could be the team to reel in as Cleckheaton underlined their determination to get out of trouble by winning easily at Kendal to move above Mowden.

Macclesfield have also been dragged into the scrap to avoid third-bottom place and Mowden go there in three weeks.

Next month they play pointless Kendal home and away with a trip to second-bottom New Brighton inbetween and they will be targeting those as must-win matches.

It was apparently the county representatives on the RFU Council who delayed the plan to expand the national leagues from 14 to 16-team divisions.

They are worried that increased fixture congestion would mean the end of the County Championship, while a lack of referees of the required standard is another concern.

With the vast majority of national league clubs in favour of the increase it had been assumed relegation would be scrapped.

Having to play Gesinde at centre, where he did an excellent job, meant Mowden switched Junior Fagalilo from front to back row, with Mark Darlington coming in at hooker.

Lock Naude Pretorius joined the casualties with a back problem, being replaced at half-time by ex-colt Chris Dodds, who did very well.

Another youngster, prop Richard Littlefair, also gave a good account of himself when he went on for the last 15 minutes.

But things just wouldn't go right from the second minute, when a line-out throw was wrongly awarded to Fylde, who promptly scored.

Another line-out drive followed by a penalty put them 15-0 up after 17 minutes and at that stage the penalty count was 7-0 against Mowden.

But then they got into the game, Iain Dixon landed a penalty and they took the game to Fylde without showing any sign of penetration in the backs.

Right on half-time Mowden fell off-side after a long kick into the corner and the penalty time gave Fylde an 18-3 lead.

Although Mowden were on top at the start of the second half they conceded three converted tries in the last 20 minutes.

Blaydon moved into third place, but after dominating the game at Macclesfield and leading 19-3 after 45 minutes they ended up hanging on desperately for a 19-13 win.

The failure to gather a bonus point also saw them fall further behind Bradford and Bingley.

Full back Michael Campbell failed his fitness test, while skipper Dave Guthrie and Pat Segi were missing from the back row, where Paul Brady seized his chance to shine.

New winger Andrew Newby grabbed his fifth try in four games after five minutes when Macclesfield dropped the ball and he raced 70 metres to score.

Teessider Ross Winney, the home fly half, replied with a drop goal.

But Blaydon got on top towards the end of the half and were awarded a penalty try when Macclesfield collapsed a scrum.

Richard Windle converted and added seven more points five minutes after the break when he strolled over from a five-metre scrum.

Blaydon dominated the next 25 minutes, but ran two very kickable penalties without success even after Macclesfield had broken out to land a penalty and make it 19-6.

With ten minutes left they broke out again and after their hooker scored near the posts they scented an unlikely win and forced Blaydon to defend desperately for the rest of the game.

After climbing into third place in North One, Westoe suffered a second successive defeat when they lost 20-15 at Huddersfield.

Already without player-coach Richard Arnold, who is back home in New Zealand for six weeks, they suffered several cry-offs and were 15-0 down at half-time.

They fought back with tries by flanker James Rennie, hooker Peter Tennet and prop Gareth Nesbit, but conceded a costly one inbetween.

Middlesbrough's hopes of a win away to second-bottom Caldy failed to materialise as they lost 20-13.

They played without confidence or cohesion and to go 10-0 down at half-time before fighting back to draw level.

But Boro again conceded a converted try and penalty before Simon Moore landed his second penalty near the end. He also added an excellent conversion when winger Kobi Gyasi scored his first league try for the club early in the second half.

Darlington were made to fight all the way for their 16-7 Durham Cup win at West Hartlepool, who continued their improvement under the coaching of Dave Stubbs.

When West drew level at 7-7 with 15 minutes left it seemed an upset was on the cards, but three penalties by full back Lee Davies took Darlingtonthrough.

West defended heroically, particularly in the back row to snuff out the threat of Alan Brown, and had their own attacking threat in 18-year-old winger Chris Lambert.

Although Darlington were on top early in the game, good defence plus their own sloppy handling forced them to fall back on the rolling maul as the game wore on.

Lock Stuart Palmer peeled off a maul to score after 25 minutes, Davies converting, but there was no further score before half-time as West came more into the game.

They took the game to Darlington after the break and Lambert almost made the line after a 70-metre break.

Darlington almost drove a maul over, but the scores were level when Darren Thomas chipped through and Lambert followed up to score, Paul Moss converting.

Davies' first penalty killed West's momentum and he struck again after 78 and 80 minutes.