Darlington stretch clear with flood of early points

Darl’ton MP ..52 Old Albanian 24

continue to cling to the shirt tails of leaders Coventry after a convincing win against strugglers Old Albanian.

With eight tries, they threatened to run away with it at half time with the score at 33-5. However, a mixture of en masse replacements and a good deal of effort and pride in adversity from Albanian produced four tries of their own, gaining a bonus point.

Just over a minute of the game had elapsed when home full-back Grant Connon brilliantly fielded an Albanian kick and, with players in support, found Warren Seals, who fed scrum-half Matt Dudman and he strolled in under the posts. Seals converted.

Having dusted the jourDARLINGTON ney out of their system, Albanians responded and, after a period of pressure, lock Ross Hamilton crashed over.

Mowden Park turned on the style in the next halfhour, scoring four unanswered tries, three of which were converted by Seals as thy showed power and pace.

The first was scored by winger Callum Mackenzie, who squeezed into the corner, after a telling break by full-back Grant Connon. This was followed by a try for full-back Brett Connon who sauntered in after good forward pressure.

The third arrived courtesy of a line-out five metres out when, instead of the customary catch and drive, the ball was fed out and returned back for supporting prop Alfie Barron

to force his way over. The fourth, scored just before the interval, was begun by a superb line break by flanker Joe Craggs, who offloaded to Dudman.

Thy picked up where they had left off on the resumption when Brett Connon scored after some intelligent play between his brother Grant and returning winger Chris McTurk.

A mixture of disruption caused by the introduction of replacements and a revival from Albanian allowed them in for a couple of easy tries, one from wing Joe Bridger and another from scrum-half Morgan Thompson, both converted by Bednall.

Park restored order when first Mackenzie, then centre Ben Frankland crossed, before Dean claimed a bonus for Albanian.