Mowden miss out as Blackheath make it count

DMP ................ 24 Blackheath ..29

DARLINGTON Mowden Park were left to rue poor discipline and a series of missed chances as a clinical Blackheath sealed victory in the north east.

After an early Blackheath penalty from Joe Tarrant, Mowden responded when winger Shaun McCartney weighed in with a good try after some enterprising play by centre Warren Seals, who converted.

Mowden took hold of the game and, within a further ten minutes, doubled their tally when Seals broke into visiting territory, dummying and carrying the ball before offloading to Canadian international Matt Heaton to touch down.

Mowden were to rue all the pressure to the break, when producing no additions to the score, despite being camped on the visitors’ five-metre line and missing several opportunities to do so.

Blackheath, though behind, did look dangerous behind the scrum, and it was no surprise on resumption of play that, after a poor start from the home side at the restart, the visitors capitalised with a soft try from winger Elliott Clements-Hill.

Some second-half scrum dominance from Blackheath led to a penalty try, as the home side were adjudged to have infringed as the visitors’ scrum approached the home try line.

Seals replied with a penalty to level the scores, but there then followed a

blow to the home side when replacement prop Ignis Darkintis was straight red arded for retaliation after being held down by an opposition lock.

Blackheath took advantage and Bircham scored a well-worked try for the visitors.

Mowden were forced to push the pace and in doing so, over-extended, with a forward throwing out a speculative pass, which was intercepted by visiting winger Lloyd, who raced in unopposed under the posts, Tarrant slotting an easy conversion.

Mowden frantically picked up the pace as the clock counted down but could not find a way back into the game as the visitors held out for a hard-fought victory.