MIDDLESBROUGH are set to return to Victoria Park next season - 27 years after being forced to head to Hartlepool during liquidation.

After talks between the two Teesside clubs, this time it is seen as a positive move by the Championship club, who will be using the home of Pools for Middlesbrough's Under-21s matches.

The switch - which comes on the back of encouraging news that Boro are hoping to retain Category One status in the Elite Player Performance Plan after last week's audit - provides the young guns with a chance to gain greater experience from playing in a ground.

The majority of the Under-21s fixtures have been played at Middlesbrough's Rockliffe Park training base, while occasionally the bigger fixtures have tended to be at the Riverside.

When Ayresome Park had its gates closed in 1986, Middlesbrough, with Tony Mowbray as captain, started the season by playing their home matches at the Vic. They also used the ground to play reserve games during the mid-90s.

VENUES up and down the North-East have until the start of June to apply to be a team base for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

With St James' Park in Newcastle due to host three games, there is expected to be a demand for training facilities in the region.

In order to be formally identified as a team base, an applicant must be able to offer a team hotel, an outdoor training venue, an indoor venue, a gym and a swimming pool.

Therefore, private institutions may have to work alongside a local authority in order to tick all the boxes.

It is anticipated that Newcastle City Council will attempt to work with some of their partners to identify a potential team base in the city, and it will be interesting to see if Darlington make a similar bid.

Darlington Mowden Park have already confirmed their willingness to make The Northern Echo Arena available as a training base, and it is conceivable that either Rockliffe Hall or Blackwell Grange could used as part of an application.

ST James' Park is not renowned as a rugby venue, so it is anticipated that World Cup organisers will suggest the staging of a warm-up game in the build-up to the 2015 tournament.

With the Rugby World Cup due to take place in September and October, that could take the form of a friendly match the previous summer.

However, The Insider understands that Newcastle Falcons are willing to discuss the possibility of staging one of their matches at St James' in order to test the stadium's readiness for its three World Cup matches.

That could be in the form of a pre-season friendly, but it could yet involve one of Falcons' league matches in the 2015-16 season being switched from Kingston Park.

THE Riverside Stadium is set for a new big screen next season after the club's main sponsors agreed to back moves to install it.

A 51 square metre screen, supplied by ADI, will be situated in the South East corner of the stadium and shirt sponsors Ramsdens have put up the funding.

The giant TV is part of Middlesbrough's plans to reconfigure the lay-out of the stadium in the hope of making the match-day experience better again. The news comes in same week as the club announced an increase in year-on-year season ticket sales.