by Nick Pullen

DUDLEY Kingswinford were still in a state of shellshock this week following their 86-7 drubbing at Darlington Mowden Park in SSE National League Division Two North.

Darlington MP ran in a total of 14 tries as DK’s were taken apart in the sublime surroundings of 25,000 seater Northern Echo Arena.

DK’s team manager Mark Holloway insisted: “ We have to stay positive. The game’s gone now and we must look ahead to Hull this Saturday.

“Obviously I didn’t expect to lose by as much as we did, but Darlington MP are a very adept side and have one of the best back line’s I’ve ever seen at this level of rugby and will be a real match for Stourbridge”.

Holloway added: “Despite what some people might think, we didn’t roll over. We ran ourselves into the ground, but we just weren’t good enough. We didn’t go out to lose a game by 86 points!

DK’s plight wasn’t helped by the fact they were forced to draft in 18 year olds Josh Morrissey and Ben Brown for their first team debuts, taking the total of players in the side under 20 years of age to six.

It took Darlington MP just five minutes to secure their first try tjhrough winger Tom Kill following some impressive handling by the backs which fly half Painter converted.

From that point it was an uphill struggle for the DK’s as Darlington MP centre Marshall stole over for two tries while scrum half Lorimmer also struck twice with back row players players Alcock and Duff adding their names to the score sheet.

After a torrid opening 35 minutes, DK’s were 48 points down, but hit back when centre Jordan Brookes breached Darlington’s cover only to drop the ball while attempting to ground it.

DK’s did get themselves on the scoresheet when fly half Gareth Bown broke through to score under the posts and convert.

But that only proved a short-lived reprieve as Darlington MP continued to wrack-up the points throughout the second half, their backs breaking through a stoic DK’s defence almost at will to produce a further seven tries.

It was difficult for the DK’s to take any positives out of the performance but skipper Ed Parry and his second row partner Nick Murphy epitomized everything about the side in an otherwise traumatic contest.