NEW signing Charlie Simpson- Daniel, an England Sevens player, went on at half-time and scored one of the six tries as Darlington Mowden Park won 41-20 at home to Lymm.

The 20-year-old utility back, one of four rugby-playing brothers from Yarm, has come through the Gloucester Academy and spent two years on the Premiership club’s full-time staff.

“He’s a really good signing for us, because he could have had his pick of clubs around here,”

said Mowden coach Pete Taylor.

Simpson-Daniel, whose brother James is still at Gloucester and would probably have been an England regular but for injuries, was keen to return to the region and said: “After training with Mowden I saw what an ambitious club they are and am excited about getting involved.”

Taylor wasn’t happy with the referee on Saturday, particularly when he refused to allow prop Dan Miller to go off following a bang on the hip.

Mowden had already made one front row substitution to give Andrew Tonkin an outing at hooker in place of Danny Brown, but they could have sent the skipper back on at prop.

Instead, Miller was forced to battle on when he was struggling to scrummage and when the next scrum went down, the referee sin-binned him and awarded Lymm a penalty try.

That made it 34-20 after Mowden had led 27-6 at halftime and they were reduced to 13 men when replacement centre Oli Peters, who had been on for only ten minutes, suffered a bad knee injury.

“We played some great rugby in the first half, but to close the game out the way we did with 13 men was a fantastic effort,”

said Taylor, who had used all his subs.

He had sent on Peters, a new arrival from Tynedale, only ten minutes earlier in place of Ben Snook, although he did add that “Snook is playing the best rugby of his life.”

Another former Darlington player, James Knox, continues to impress at No. 8 and scored the opening try from a powerful run after ten minutes.

Gavin Painter converted and added a penalty before Mowden drove up the middle from a line-out and centre Robin Eatough made a break, before winger Matty Lister finished well in the left corner.

Scrum half Todd Harrison then nipped over from a scrum, Painter’s third conversion making it 22-0, before Eatough raced away to score from 70 metres.

Simpson-Daniel showed his class after going on at scrum half for the second half, scorching through a gap to score from 40 metres.

The game was held up for seven minutes because of Peters’ injury, but after Lymm narrowed the gap Mowden came back and prop Ralph Appleby scored their fourth try with seven minutes left. Painter added his fourth conversion.

Mowden are at home to Beverley tomorrow, while unbeaten Darlington visit Stockton in Durham and Northumberland One.

Darlington’s former playercoach, Craig Lee, is now coaching Stockton and having to play at fly half as regular No 10 Jeremy Good is injured.

As Darlington at one time had eight ex-Stockton players, the hosts will be very keen to add to their two wins out of three this season.

Following his 50-minute comeback the previous week, ex-skipper Richard Snowball played for all but the ten minutes he spent in the sin bin in Darlington’s hard-fought 28-16 win at Ryton.

The lock forward was yellow carded for what the referee claimed was persistent off side, although observers claimed that the official was struggling to keep up with Snowball’s level of play.

After scoring five tries in the first two games, winger David Mackfaul was unavailable but his replacement, Warren Peterson, beat his opposite man to run in from 20 metres for the first try after eight minutes.

Nick Baldwin converted and added three penalties, but ex- Mowden fly half John Benson, now coaching Ryton, also landed three first half penalties then converted a try after the break to level the scores.

The Darlington forwards nailed down the win by driving over for two tries, finished off by No 8 Andrew Hodgkins and prop Joe Oselton, with Baldwin adding another conversion.

Northallerton again suffered from players being unavailable to travel as they lost 26-5 at Goole. There were three changes in the last 24 hours, but North still put in a spirited effort, with the most noteworthy performances coming from Jonny Baker and Rich Lonsdale.

Although they were behind early on, North never gave up and with a bit more self-belief they could have gone over for a couple of tries in the first half.

With captain Paul Dixon leading from the front and supported by the effervescent Lee Peake, North defended tenaciously to trail only 7-0 at halftime.

Goole increased in confidence to score three more tries, while North’s only answer came from a try from roving prop Colin Birtwhistle.

The seconds lost 24-0 at home to Stockton, despite selecting several non-travelling first team players, only two of whom turned up. Six of the third team had to be promoted and the third team fixture at Middlesborough had to be cancelled.

North were slightly unlucky to concede the first try as it resulted from a forward pass, then some wayward kicking resulted in another try for a 10-0 half-time deficit.

North conceded an early try in the second half and a fourth ten minutes from the end sealed their fate.

Northallerton host Garforth tomorrow, while the seconds travel to Guisborough.