Rugby round-up

The greater shock was Mowden Park’s 29-24 win at Macclesfield, who have been the form team in National Three North in recent weeks.

It was only Mowden’s fourth win of the season and with five games left they are 13 points adrift of third-bottom Huddersfield, the team they visit in their final match on May 9.

The only blip on Saturday was that they were unable to augment the four points for the win with a four-try bonus as 15 of the points came from Jon Benson penalties.

After winning only one of their first 19 games, Darlington recorded a second successive victory by beating Sheffield Tigers 28-15.

Darlington cannot escape bottom place in North One but if, as expected, only two clubs go down from the whole of level five they could still survive by winning their one remaining match. As that is at Birkenhead Park on April 18, however, it’s a tall order.

Mowden were defensively superb after Macclesfield swept into a 24-6 half-time lead, and with the wind behind him Benson added three penalties to his two first half efforts and converted both tries.

The first came from skipper Danny Brown, who followed last week’s hat-trick by touching down by the posts after centre Dean Kelbrick cut through.

Mowden went ahead with 20 minutes left when they kicked deep and caught the home full back in possession. The ball was regained and moved one way then the other before Kelbrick and Benson combined to send full back Matthew Lister over.

Benson stretched the lead with his fifth penalty from just inside halfway, and with Andrew Tonkin and Michael Ellery shining in the back row Mowden held out comfortably in the last ten minutes.

Tynedale look certain to finish a very creditable fourth in their first season in National Two after coming back from 19-0 down to win 31-27 at Stourbridge.

In 15 minutes of superb attacking rugby either side of half-time Tynedale scored five tries, three of them converted by Gavin Beasley for what proved a winning lead.

Westoe kept the North One champagne on ice after their 25-0 home win against Birkenhead Park as Hull’s 13-5 victory at West Hartlepool meant the title isn’t quite decided.

But with one game left, a twopoint lead and a superior points difference it’s as good as in the bag for Westoe, who will expect to win at Beverley in two weeks.

The division’s leading try scorer, Kiwi winger Willie Moala, took his tally to 28 with a hat-trick and ex-Blaydon scrum half Gavin Charlton also touched down.

A try by flanker Aaron Myers gave West Hartlepool hope after they trailed 10-0 to Hull, but the visitors added a penalty to secure victory.

Darlington had their trio of Richardson brothers playing together for the first time and all three were on the scoresheet in an excellent team performance.

Dave picked up a loose ball 40 metres out and outpaced the cover to score after three minutes, Sean converting from the touchline. The youngest brother added two penalties before senior sibling, Lee, scored a crucial try after 53 minutes.

An 18-10 lead playing into the wind did not look enough but the home captain chipped over Tigers’ full back and won the race to touch down.

Both props also scored, Joe Oselton finishing off an eightphase drive in the first half, while Dave Tunstead barged over for the final try. That made it 28-10 and Tigers scored with five minutes left.

Middlesbrough moved into fifth place with a 31-21 win at Stockport, with centre Simon O’Farrell again notching vital points.

He kicked two penalties as Boro trailed 7-6 at half-time, then converted two of the three second half tries and finally sealed victory with a penalty and a drop goal.

Hooker Richard Horton finished off a good forward drive straight after half-time, then the pack again advanced before the ball was fed out for centre Rob Bellerby to score.

Stockport also scored two converted tries in the second half, but Boro nosed ahead when a good move was finished off in style by winger Gordon Bland.

Billingham will be relying on Durham City to do them a favour on the final day of the season in two weeks.

They need City to win at home to Old Crossleyans, which would allow Billingham to clinch the promotion play-off place in North Two East by beating Carlisle at home.

It looks a forlorn hope as City are next to the bottom, but they will not be relegated and continued their marked improvement in the second half of the season by winning 24-20 at home to Carlisle.

Billingham produced a good performance to win 33-25 at Driffield after conceding two early tries. Coach Chris Hyndman sparked the recovery by shrugging off several tackles to score, then he made another break and off-loaded for scrum half Paul Woodhouse to touch down.

Anth Hyndman and Dave Robinson also scored and with Peter Evans landing all four conversions Billingham led 28-10 at half-time. Danny Dixon finished off some good inter-passing after the break before Driffield mounted a late fightback.

Hartlepool Rovers continue to look unassailable in Durham and Northumberland One after a 39-22 home win against Ashington. But they will need to win their two remaining games as Percy Park can still catch them.

The Tynemouth club have to play a league game in midweek to catch up on their backlog, but after winning 47-6 at home to Stockton they will be confident of completing the double when they travel to face the same opponents next Saturday.

Depleted Stockton were reasonably content to trail only 20-3 after playing into the strong wind, but the hosts played better into it.