DARLINGTON MOWDEN PARK  17    BEVERLEY  24

                This was more like it.  The disappointment of their two earlier defeats was firmly put behind them as a fine all round team performance brought Beverley their first win in National League Three.

                For half an hour they were on the back foot and had to mount a rearguard action as Mowden Park enjoyed the greater possession and territorial advantage.  But Beverley’s tackling was superb.  The home backs could find no way through and it was Beverley who took the lead when Jade Gardiner made a lovely break in midfield to put Umberto Cuozzo over for the game’s opening try.  Phil Duboulay added the conversion and suddenly there was an added spring in Beverley’s step which eventually took them on to a well deserved victory. 

                Their pack was again playing splendidly with the back row of Matthew Tamali’i, David Worrall, and James McKay quite outstanding.  David Brant at prop was proving a more than adequate deputy for the absent James Armitage.  In the second row Patrick Pole, who will surely prove an excellent acquisition when he is fully fit, was always in the forefront of the ferocious tackling put in by the Beverley forwards. 

                Tamali’i with a tremendous thirty metre burst went over in the corner for a second try and when the ball went loose in midfield Aaron Yorke kicked through from halfway and won the race for a third touchdown.  With Duboulay adding a second conversion Beverley in the space of ten minutes had suddenly gone nineteen points clear. 

                Mowden Park started the second half with some beefy substitutions in their forwards which immediately paid dividends.  Within a minute of the restart they caught Beverley napping when prop Rob Kalbraier crashed over from a tapped penalty five metres out for a try which fly half Jon Benson converted.  Five minutes later they struck again when their pack muscled its way up to the Beverley line and wing forward Ed Williamson darted over for a second try. 

                But Beverley quickly regrouped.  Playing with a belief and purpose not seen in their earlier fixtures they kept the home forwards constantly at bay.  Several times they came close to adding to their own score.  Duboulay, kicking into an awkward wind, was unlucky to see a penalty bounce back off the post and Guy Hope might have had a couple of tries had the final pass been released a bit earlier.  A nicely worked back row move put Pole over only for the try to be disallowed for crossing. 

                The game by now was building up to an exciting final quarter as Mowden Park battled to get back into it.  Play swung excitingly from end to end and Worrall with a shimmy and a couple of sidesteps went over from a lineout to stretch the Beverley lead.  Within two minutes Mowden Park were back in contention when their pack drove over from a penalty and lineout in the corner.  But it was as near as they got.  The later stages were largely played out in the home half and it was mainly through breakouts – albeit dangerous ones – that the home backs threatened.  In the end it would have been rough justice for Beverley had Mowden Park drawn level.  For them the victory was deserved if only because, in contrast to the two previous weeks, it was they who had taken their chances and played the more composed rugby.