Darlington Mowden Park are delighted to announce the signing of Jordon Poole from Yorkshire Carnegie. The Leeds born front row made 9 appearances for DMP last season whilst Dual Registered to the Championship club, and now joins Mowden on a permanent basis. The 21 year-old was happy to be joining the club: “I’m delighted to have signed for Mowden! After being a part of the team last year that had such a successful season for the club, when it came to looking for a new club after my contract ended at Carnegie, Mowden was always at the front of my mind! Now I’ve moved up here and we’ve begun our preparations for the 18/19 season I know I’ve made the right decision!”

Poole impressed throughout his 9 appearances in the 2018/19 season, which included back-to-back Man of the Match awards in March: “I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Mowden last year and wish I could have got a few more games under my belt for the club; with commitments to Carnegie and a few frustrating injuries I had last season, unfortunately I couldn’t! The lads and coaches last year really helped me with settling in when I first came up on loan. They made it obvious to me that I had to be on the same level of standards as they were or raising that level if I was to be selected in the matchday squad!”

With the squad now into their first week of pre-season training, the hooker was itching to get started: “The new season can’t come quick enough! The team had great standards/enthusiasm on day 1 of pre-season which really excites me knowing that if we can bring those standards to the very last day of the competitive season we will be a serious threat in this league. As a team we have said as a minimum we want to finish in a similar position as last season but our initial target is pushing for that promotion! My personal goals are to push for that No.2 jersey and hopefully make it mine for as much as I can next season. I’ve got some good competition with Woody after the great season he had last year so I’m looking forward to that; apart from that I just want to stay as injury free as possible and do everything I can too better myself and the team."

Mowden Park’s Director of Rugby Danny Brown was equally positive about the hooker’s prospects for the coming season: “We’re very pleased to have Jordon with us for the coming season. He made a hugely positive impact on the squad last year when he was involved and we look forward to seeing him compete for the hooker shirt this year.”

You can see Jordon and the rest of the squad in action this season by buying your 2018/19 Season Ticket memberships, available here.