Darlington Mowden Park 43 Hull Ionians 11

WINGER Peter Homan was the chief beneficiary as Mowden finally hit top gear on Saturday.

Chances to show his finishing skills had been scarce during Mowden's disrupted start to the season. But things have really started to click since the World Cup and Homan cashed in by romping over for four tries.

He has played in the Championship for Rotherham, London Scottish and Plymouth since leaving Middlesbrough and is now making his mark after returning to the North-East.

As with fellow winger Jake Henry, it is Homan's strength as much as his speed which makes him a handful and taking short passes at pace allowed him to burst through tackles for two of his tries.

It was inevitable that Homan would be named man of the match, but Matt Walsh pushed him close.

He made a bright start after being preferred to Bruno Bravo at scrum half, but had to switch to full back when Ed Coulson retired after 25 minutes.

It didn't stop him getting involved in attacks and he showed good pace in sprinting to the left corner for the bonus point try.

After recording back-to-back wins for the first time this season, Mowden are now looking capable of a climb up the table.

They made a cracking start, going 14-0 up in eight minutes. New fly half Warren Seals wriggled through two tackles to score from 15 metres then sent Homan under the posts when the winger appeared outside him on a diagonal run.

Ionians came back with a penalty but lost former Durham University No 8 Phil Eggleshaw to the sin bin for inflicting brief damage on flanker Luca Petillo.

They held out during the absence of a key player and began to look a useful side on his return. But a 45-metre penalty was their only reward and Garry Law swiftly replied to make it 17-6 at half-time.

The visitors looked capable of making a contest of it early in the second half, but after nine minutes Mowden capitalised on turnover ball near halfway, moving it left before Seals' inside pass sent Homan under the posts.

A try by the Hull forwards following a penalty to touch kept them in it at 24-11, but they were blown away in the last 15 minutes.

Walsh scooted into the left corner, Law adding an excellent conversion, then an attack up the left saw replacement winger Michael Tait break a tackle to give Homan an easy run-in.

For his fourth he took a short pass on the burst on the 22 to romp under the posts. Law's fifth conversion out of six took him to 100 points for the season.