Mowden Park's recent unbeaten run came to and end on Saturday after a frustrating game at the Darlington Arena. Three tries for the visitors inside the opening 20 minutes took the game away from the hosts, before a late Nev Edwards try secured a bonus point win for Sale.

The away side opened the scoring within 30 seconds, as a DMP box kick was charged down and hooker Josh Brown dived over. A Louis Johnson penalty got the hosts on the board, before another instant try for the visitors. Mowden failed to gather the resulting restart, and Tom Walsh raced over in the corner a few phases later. Things got worse for the hosts on the 20 minute mark, when James Robins latched onto a loose pass to walk over under the posts. Chris Johnson converted all three opening tries to give the visitors a 3-21 lead. The remainder of the first half was largely dominated by the hosts, who reduced the deficit through a Josh Crickmay try to make the score 8-21 at the break.

Mowden Park came out firing in the second half and crossed for their second when Liam Checksfield sprinted over under the posts. A yellow card for the visitors winger Walsh soon followed, but the hosts were unable to capitalise on their numerical advantage as Sale’s defence held out for the 10 minutes they were down to 14. Instead it was Mowden who were then reduced to 14 as Ollie Walker was penalised for a deliberate knock on. Johnson added a quickfire brace of penalties to extend the Sale lead to 12, before another yellow card for Seb Cecil. Despite more pressure from DMP it was Neville Edwards who dived over in the corner to round off an important win for the away side.

Mowden now travel to Tonbridge Juddians for the first time next weekend.