Sunderland 2s continue with their decent run of form

Welcome to the 2s report.

Aln League, CANDY league, Tees Valley Merit League, where to play?

The balance is ensuring we provide reasonably competitive, enjoyable matches for our players whilst also ensuring that 2s players are as fully prepared as possible to make the leap into 1st XV rugby.

The verdict is stil out but as I reported last week I think our aspiration should be having a competitive 2s in the CANDY League.

We'll see though.

We took a strong squad to novos 3s. For the record this was a 2s team, we had Heff and Chris Geehan back who are establishing themselves as 1s squad players but that was it.

We welcomed back Goffy and Tom after long absences.

On his 18th birthday week James Fraser was selected as sub to make a senior front row debut.

19 year old Ben Hodgson made his Sunderland club debut too.

At the other end of the scale Clive Fish made his season debut at the age of 46.

In a nutshell we dominated the 1st half with some great team and individual tries. We had a clear edge at the scrum and open play.

However lineouts with our throw never quite came off although with defensive lineouts James Hanson and Ross Finch disrupted or took every lineout.

The second half saw the ref take a dislike to our style of play. We created no momentum or structure and conceded lots of penalties.

Despite this we held out with some excellent individual tackles and good team defensive 'shape'.

Novos scored a consolation try with the last play of the match and we won with a very comfortable 18-10 win.

Highlights:

Old men: Clive, Deano, Andy Black provided leadership and momentum.

Ross and James Hanson: impressed in lineout and general play ; Ross with his tackling, James with his ball in hand carries. Both need more game time but already they look good.

Scully: Another very good game, looking too good for 2s I think.

Goffy: What a try!

Ben and James: Works in progress but both of them got stuck in and contributed positively.

Lowlights:

Tom Townend: Me; 'Tom, what have you been given red or yellow?' Tom; 'nothing but I'm not prepared to be stood on the head put someone else on!'

Ditchy, nut megged by a grubber kick which also managed to make him fall down like he'd been shot (to be fair he did well later I thought).

Clive: great game, but played as well with no contact lenses and being unable to see as he did with full sight, not sure what that means next time he plays.

Gerrard: great tackling but how can a winger concede 5 penalties in a match?

Mom: Ross, Scully and Clive pushed him close but the best player was Andy Black, some big hits, turnovers and umpteen carries. Novos struggled to handle him and was always part of our best moves. I also love him really.