51 - 5 win for 2s v Whitley Bay Rockliffe

A total of of 8 changes today to the 2nd XV was not enough to put them off their stride this afternoon.

As ever lots of people played very well, in fact everybody did something today. As usual apols if I've not reflected yr positive input.

It's early days in the season but i'm seeing the development of a 'core' of players who are enabling the 2's to play some decent rugby. Long may it continue.

WBR threw lots of physical pressure at Sunderland and especially in the first 10 mins looked to have the edge on Sunderland.

i was v. impressed with the lads continual effort to put what we are training into the match, particularly in defence: 'feet, feet and up'

WBR remained competitive throughout and particularly in the 1st half (19-5 to Sunderland) however we had the ability to connect forward and back play where as WBR were a bit more limited (but had some good ball carrying players) in comparison.

Highlights:

- Cam Grimwood, 21 points including 3 tries and some tremendous tackles.

- Adam Reay, 2 tries, loads of tackles. If he cud get outside the 10 he'd be perfect. I imagine 15+ tackles per match makes this difficult.

- Duncan Bain, - Scary tackler

- Elsty / Robin, impressive 2nd row, get yr butts at training.

- Defence - 'feet. feet and up' Thank you everyone today.

- Jordan Smith / Jamie Cowans, massive improvements week on week keep it going.

- Dappy, after a wobble at hooker: 'i feel sick', look at my hand!' did very well overall.

- MoM Robin Watson; line out, tackling, carries. What's not to like? (Get training)

Lowlights:

- An unnamed back row forward in the last 20 disregarded the well coached structure and caused some chaos with imaginative passing that was poorly anticipated by his team mates and the ref.

- However the same back row player scored twice including one from well within his own half.

- He accepted the constructive criticism of his colleagues and promised to ensure that they trained very hard next week to rectify his shortcomings.