Darlington Mowden Park made it three league wins in a row after a hard-fought victory over Leeds Tykes at The Sycamores. Garry Law's side ran in 4 tries to take maximum points despite a strong second half comeback from the hosts.

Playing with the wind at their backs in the first half, Leeds took an early lead through the boot of Charlie Venables after Mowden had strayed offside. DMP hit back soon after, and took the lead after 12 minutes when Carl Guest finished strongly in the corner after a well-worked lineout. Mowden's lead was short lived however, as Harry Jukes dived over minute's later following a quickly taken lineout on half way. Venables converted to extend the Tykes' lead to 5 points. An end-to-end first 40 continued, and Mowden thought they'd levelled the scores when Callum Mackenzie crashed over. The ball was ruled held up however, but it didn't take DMP long to get their second as Max Davies galloped clear from 30m out to finish well in the right corner. A Venables penalty edged Leeds back in front, before Mowden were reduced to 14 when Mackenzie was shown yellow for a deliberate knock on out wide. Despite ending the half with a man less, DMP defended well and levelled the scores through a Matt Minogue penalty shortly before the break. Half time score 13-13.

With 3 minutes left on the Mackenzie yellow, Mowden made an ideal start to the second half to score within seconds of the restart. First Davies gathered Minogue's short kickoff, before Ben Frankland powered over from close range after a Tykes infringement in the corner. Tykes prop Connor Hancock was shown yellow in the process, and it didn't take Mowden long to capitalise as Mackenzie dived over in the corner just minutes after re-entering the field. Minogue converted both tries to extend DMP's lead to 14 with half an hour to play. Just as it looked like Mowden might stretch clear, Leeds responded well to claw themselves back into the game. After Dave Fisher saw yellow for a no-arms tackle, Jukes finished a flowing Tykes move to dot down his second of the game. Former DMP back row Grayson Maguire then burrowed over from close range, with the missed conversion leaving Mowden with a slender 2 point advantage. A frantic final 5 minutes saw Mowden come close to a fifth when McTurk was tackled into touch inches from the Tykes line, before the hosts worked their way into scoring range to set up a nervy finale. A bizarre mix up with the officials saw Mowden kick to touch for what they thought was full time, but any controversy was averted when captain Will Jones held up Jukes on half way to win DMP a vital scrum and see out another nail-biting victory.

Max Davies was DMP's Man of the Match after a brilliant all-round display, with a number of standout performances in DMP's ranks. Credit must go to the Tykes for a battling display, and we wish them the best of luck for the rest of the campaign.

Mowden now return to the Arena in search of their fourth consecutive win when they take on Plymouth, while Leeds make the trip to league leaders Rams in Round 21.