Nuneaton 41 Darlington 10

Unbeaten Nuneaton impressively kept their lead at the top of the table with a six-trytoone win over Darlington, their scores including three by wingers Lee Parry and Ben Shorthouse, both 19 years old, and 16 points from Gareth Cull.

Fly-half Cull scored their third try, kicked four conversions and opened their lead with a second-minute penalty while Darlington, who arrived as the leading try scorers in the division, barely came to the party in the first quarter.

By 14 minutes Nuns were 15-0 up as Parry finihed off an attack featuring centre Jodey Peacock and fanker John Munro, then Peacock stormed over from 60 yards after Parry started the move deep in his own half.

When Darlington found their legs, they soon showed what dangerous runners they could be, but Nuns demonstrated why they have the best defensive record with almost flawless tackling and well-drilled alignment.

Darlington's points all came in the brief spell after Nuneaton's Kiwi No 8 Ben Toleafoa was sent to the sin-bin just before half time for killing tackled ball, Ben Snook landing the resultant penalty and, immediately after the break, converting centre simon Crozier's touchdown.

Crucially, before Toleafoa returned, Cull cut through for his try to make the lead 22-10 and ten minutes later flung a long pass out to Shorthouse, who scorched in from 40 yards.

Parry did well to squeeze into the left corner for his second try and centre Phil Reed dummied outside and cut inside for the final try.