Darlington Mowden Park 36 Wharfedale 26

WHARFEDALE travelled up the AI encouraged by strong performances in their last two matches, but fully aware of the challenge of taking on a team who had recorded nine wins on the trot.

That task became immeasurably harder after only three minutes when Josh Burridge was red-carded in trying to prevent Mowden Park scrum half Matt Walsh from scoring.

Reduced to 14 men, Dale were under immense pressure and a rampant Park scored two further quick tries through Peter Homan and Simon Uzokwe to lead 17-0 after 17 minutes.

Dale had to dig deep to prevent further damage and the response was outstanding, with George Hedgley having an excellent game against his old club and Jack Barnard and Chris Howick tackling furiously to stem the tide.

Dale clawed their way back with a fine break by the impressive young Jordon Poole and some urgent prompting by skipper James Doherty. A quick tap penalty by Doherty saw the ball fed to Harry Bullough who hit the line at pace to set up a ruck on the Park line, from which Ricky Cano charged over. Jamie Guy added the conversion.

Now Dale were on the board and playing with pace and aggression. Jarad Williams, a new loan signing from Yorkshire Carnegie, was sent on after half an hour and immediately made his presence felt with a powerful drive to feed Ollie Fewtrell who made a clean break up the middle.

When the rattled Park defence was penalised, Doherty was brought down five metres short but Barnard was on hand to score. In injury time, Dale were penalised for a high tackle and it proved costly. Park kicked for the corner and an efficient catch and drive saw Uzokwe claim his second try to leave the half time score 22-12.

Dale dominated the start of the second half and, after a penalty for offside, Hedgley won a clean line-out on the 22. Williams broke from the back of the maul and through two tackles on his way to the line.

A conversion by Guy reduced the deficit to 22-19. The game then swung from end to end with Park spurning two clear chances to score either side of strong Dale pressure which was denied by aggressive defence.

As the 14 men began to tire, Park’s pack gained the upper hand with Seals controlling midfield and powerful runs by Woodhouse and Henry putting Dale on the retreat, despite some outstanding defensive work by the midfield three of Guy, Hudson and Fewtrell.

Forward dominance led to tries for Park No 8 Hodgson and flanker Petillo, converted by Seals to make it 36-19, before the game started to unravel with a couple of off the ball incidents.

Hedgley and Park second row Rob Conquest were sin-binned after a 78th minute scuffle and, a minute later Steve Graham and Park’s Garry Law followed suit.

Now playing 12 against 13, Jamie Guy drove Dale forward with a penalty to touch and Matt van Sertima squeezed over for a richly-deserved bonus point try, converted by Guy.