Darlington Mowden Park 43 Richmond 12

A VISIT to National One's bottom club, Macclesfield, this week will give Mowden Park the opportunity of the third successive win which would virtually guarantee survival.

Three of their five remaining home games are against London clubs, who don't relish the trip north on the evidence provided first by Blackheath and now Richmond.

While Wharfedale displayed grit and resilience on their visit to the Northern Echo Arena, the southern softies capitulated once they realised they were in for a battle.

Richmond scored first and last but were dominated inbetween by a Mowden side who played very well once they roused themselves from a moderate start.

Despite having already used ten back row men this season, they will have to find opportunities for an Australian No 8 who has played at a high level and arrived last week.

It would be tough on Guy van den Dries if he had to make way, while the powerful Joe Maud underlined that he brings good balance to the back row at blind side.

Ben Gledhill has also bolstered the second row, winning some excellent line-out ball and forming an effective pairing with the ever-present Rob Conquest.

Any of these could have rivalled fly half Grant Connon for the man of the match award, which he received despite a shaky start in which his poor pass allowed Richmond to mount the pressure which brought a try in the left corner.

They appeared to have the edge in the scrums early on, but Mowden countered that once Matt Thompson went on.

They are trying to find opportunities for Charlie Maddison, who started at hooker for the second successive week but was sin-binned after 14 minutes and injured shortly after going back on.

He wasn't happy about being singled out for a yellow card for his part in a dust-up which followed a Richmond forward being trampled when lying on the wrong side. That used to be expected; nowadays it is deemed unacceptable.

Being reduced to 14 seemed to spark Mowden and four minutes later they went ahead then dominated the rest of the half.

From turnover ball just inside halfway skipper Cameron Mitchell set it up and Connon made a half break before a neat inside pass gave prop Matt Shields a 20-metre dash to the posts.

Now well on top, Mowden kicked two penalties to touch and the second catch-and-drive attempt proved successful with Callum Mackenzie touching down.

Connon added a simple penalty to make it 15-5 then finished an excellent move begun by van den Dries breaking up the blind side from a scrum.

He turned the ball inside to scrum half Adam Nixon before Thompson provided the pass which allowed Connon to shrug off a tackle 20 metres out and go under the posts. He landed his second conversion for a 22-5 lead, which was kept intact by withstanding a series of five-metre scrums just before half-time.

George Hedgley was sent on to give the ever-present Mackenzie a breather, but it needed the elusiveness of full back Henry Robinson to lift the second half action out of its early deadlock.

First he looked to have outpaced the defence from 30 metres out only to lose the ball in going for the right corner. But it did put Mowden back on the front foot and after 50 minutes inside centre Tom Hodgson took a short pass on the burst from Connon and went straight through to the posts.

Young winger Tom Kill had twice shown his inexperience, but atoned impressively through his desire to get involved. His burst up the right made the running for Hodgson to float a long pass to Robinson, who jinked inside two tackles to score.

Powerful youngster Simon Ozukwe, normally a prop, went into the back row for the last ten minutes and his surging run was continued by Mitchell before Thompson sent Robinson over again in the left corner.

With Connon having been replaced by Mark Ireland, Hodgson added a fine conversion before Mowden eased off and a rare defensive lapse allowed the visiting No 8 to score from a scrum.

But they had done enough to draw level with Blaydon and stretch their far superior points difference, which is bettered only by the top four.