The latest game for the reincarnated Newton Aycliffe Rugby Club saw a step up in the quality of opposition with a combined Darlington 2nd and 3rd visiting Moore Lane. There were two more debutants in Adam Batley and Mark Wilson. Due to a shortage of referees, one of the Darlington players refereed the first half and Stuart McIvor officiated the second.
For once Aycliffe did not concede a try in the first minutes, but the visitors had some quick backs and scored first.  Aycliffe struck back with the best score of the game: Michael Welsh picked up from the back of a scrum and made ground before offloading to Michael Dunn, who fed Gareth Parsonage on the burst.
When Parsonage was tackled, McIvor was on hand and found Dunn with a one-handed offload. Dunn released Connor Blakey into space and scored the try. Aycliffe’s defence was under pressure, but the back three of Wilson, JJ Rudge, and Matt Parsons put in good tackles. The dam broke and Darlington scored three more tries, but Aycliffe could easily have scored two or three of their own. Break 24 – 5. Aycliffe began the 2nd half in fine style as substitute David Judge and Darryl Pettit split the defence and Pettit scored in the corner.  Darlington struck back with a score, but Aycliffe scored again with Batley scoring against his former team-mates.  With Aycliffe a man short due to injury, the lack of fitness told as Darlington scored 3 tries in the last 10 minutes to give them a flattering 64 – 15 victory.