Mowden Park halt winless run

Darlington Mowden Park ended a run of six straight defeats in National One as they beat Esher, moving the north-east side six points clear of the relegation zone.

It was a much needed win for DMP who have struggled with injuries lately while this was a sixth straight away defeat of the season for Esher.

DMP still sit a place above the relegation zone, but the teams in the bottom three all failed to win this weekend. Blaydon lost out to Ampthill and District while there were also away defeats for Macclesfield and Hull Ionians against Plymouth Albion and Cambridge respectively.

Just above Darlington, sit Fylde who have also lost all six of their away games this season as they were beaten by the Old Albanian.

In the top half, Hartpury College’s immaculate season continued as they secured rtheir 13^th straight bonus-point win whilst Birmingham Moseley are now 14 points behind the runaway leaders despite a hard-fought victory over Blackheath. Elsewhere, Rosslyn Park continued their fine form with another victory as they beat Coventry.

Loughborough Students 25-47 Hartpury College

Hartpury College ran in seven tries to secure win number 13 of the season as they beat Loughborough Students in the Midlands.

Tries from Luke Eves, Des Merrey and Jake Polledri helped put them 23-13 ahead, with the impressive Josh Sharp converting his own try and slotting two penalties for the hosts.

Eves then went over for his second try of the afternoon and that was swiftly followed by Ben Vellacott as Hartpury opened up a 35-13 lead.

However, two tries in three minutes from Jake Stapley and Saracens’ Rotimi Segun gave Loughborough a lifeline in this contest.

But, it was short lived as Robbie Shaw and James Stephenson rounded off proceedings for College who secured their 13^th straight bonus-point win of the campaign.

Birmingham Moseley 22-12 Blackheath

Birmingham Moseley secured a hard-fought win over Blackheath at Billesley Common to remain second in the National One table.

James Williams and Leo Fielding exchanged early penalties before Ed Sheldon scored the first try of the afternoon to put the hosts in front.

Fielding kept Blackheath in touch as he slotted over two more penalties to reduce Moseley’s lead to just a point at half-time.

The full-back was at it again in the second period as he landed his fourth goal of the day to briefly give Club the lead, but the final quarter of this game belonged to Moseley.

Jack Preece and Chris Brightwell managed to break down the Blackheath defence to score and wrap up the win as they continue their pursuit of Hartpury College, whilst its three defeats in the last five for Club.

Plymouth Albion 33-10 Macclesfield

Plymouth Albion remain unbeaten at home this season as they secured their seventh straight victory at Brickfields thanks to this bonus-point win over Macclesfield.

Albion powered into a 21-5 half-time lead as Matt Crosscombe, Robin Wedlake and Tom Cowen-Dickie scored tries while Kieran Hallett kicked three conversions.

Macclesfield’s points came via a David Marwick score, but the Blues were given a route back into the game just before half-time as Sam Nixon and Rupert Cooper were both sin-binned for Plymouth.

Macc did take advantage of their absence as Sam Moss dotted down and it got worse for Albion as Cooper was shown a second yellow card on his return to the field after a dangerous collision with Tom Eaton.

However, Macclesfield could not capitalise on the extra a man and as the game entered its final minutes, Plymouth somehow managed to muster up two more tries as Crosscombe grabbed his second before Todd Prisk scored with the final play of the game.

Ampthill and District 50-14 Blaydon

Joe Tarrant inspired Ampthill and District to a convincing National One bonus-point win over Blaydon as the Bedfordshire side consolidated fifth place in the table.

The Ampthill fly-half’s 20-point haul moved the A’s to within eight points of second placed Birmingham Moseley.

Tarrant scored one of Ampthill’s seven tries and kicked 15 points in the win.

His try was the first of the afternoon before scores from Sam Baker and Alex Mitchell gave Ampthill a 22-0 lead at the break.

Sam Hanks and Baker added to that after the interval as the hosts took complete control against the divisions’ bottom club.

Blaydon did hit back through replacement Ryan Foreman, but a brace from hooker Alex Lutui continued Ampthill’s dominance.

The away side weren’t done though as Cameron Bell crossed late on, but Ampthill had already done more than enough to secure their ninth win of the campaign.

Rosslyn Park 33-15 Coventry

Rosslyn Park recorded their third straight win as they emphatically beat Coventry at The Rock.

Two penalties from Harry Leonard  and a try from Andy Reay gave the in-form hosts an 11-0 lead on 37 minutes, but Coventry were presented with a gift on the stroke of half-time as Dan Rundle’s score reduced the deficit to four points.

Eoghan Grace’s try gave Cov the lead five minutes after the restart, but that was short lived as Andrew Henderson darted over to put Rosslyn back in front.

Will Maisey kept Coventry on the tails of their hosts with a penalty, but they couldn’t get any closer to Park who took the game away from their visitors when Hugo Ellis and Ali Wade crossed to secure another victory for Rosslyn.

Old Albanian 32-17 Fylde

The Old Albanian sealed back to back wins for the first time since September as they secured a bonus-point win against Fylde.

After a commanding first half which saw Harry Bate and Nick Foster go over as well as Ben Palmer kicking eight points, the OA’s tightened their grip on the game in the second period as Max Malins scored.

Sam Lunnon then crossed for the hosts to earn them the bonus-point.

Anthony Bingham and Jake Pope both dotted down for Fylde, but the game had already been put out of their reach as Fylde’s away day woes continued.

Cambridge 57-31 Hull Ionians

Cambridge resisted a second-half fightback from Hull Ionians to clinch a nine-try victory at Volac Park.

With Cambridge looking for back to back home wins, they led 12-3 after tries by George Furbank and Tom Trotter.

Both teams then exchanged tries in the first period as Ali Thomson’s brace for Hull Ionians was cancelled out by a Penalty Try for Cambridge as well as a second score for Trotter.

The Blood and Sand did have the final say of a frantic first period as Cameron Ruddock and Matt Hema both crossed to give the hosts a 38-17 lead at the break.

The open style of rugby was set to continue in the second-half, but it was the visitors who had the better of opening 20 minutes as Thomson completed his hat-trick before Liam Millar dived over to reduce Cambridge’s lead to just seven points.

However, with 10 minutes remaining Cambridge regained some sort of control on this encounter and ultimately secured the win when Stef Liebenberg and Albert Portsmouth both went over.

Cambridge would add another score before the day was done as Lawrence Hutchinson took advantage of a three-on-one to seal the win for Ross Stewart’s men.

Darlington Mowden Park 48-31 Esher

Darlington Mowden Park secured their first win in six matches as a perfect kicking performance from Warren Seals helped them to victory over Esher.

Tries from David Fisher and Santiago Socino had DMP 14-3 in front, with Seals converting both and the fly-half would go on to end the day with 16 points.

The hosts then built on their lead as Seals slotted over a penalty after Neil Sweeny was yellow-carded, but Esher hit back as Stephen Boatman kicked six points before Callum O’Connell touched down to reduce DMP’s lead to just a point.

However, there was just another time for Seals to add another penalty to give his side a 20-16 lead at the break.

Once again, DMP pulled away from Esher as Ben Frankland and Adam Radwan crossed the whitewash, but back came Esher as Andrew Garner dotted down before Boatman landed another penalty to cut Darlington’s lead to three.

Both sides then exchanged tries as Callum McKenzie and Joe Brown crossed, but it was the hosts that had the final say as James Fitzpatrick barged his way over to seal a much needed victory.