Back to winning ways for Sunderland 2s

Welcome to the 2s report, apologies is a bit later than usual.

A regular feature of selection this season is that most Tuesday's the coaches are generally full of confidence with the 3 teams that have been selected however by Friday evenings we normally have our head in our hands at the number of cry offs and non-avail abilities that have occurred.

This Saturday was no different with the 2s team that was selected on Tuesday bearing little resemblance to the team we put out on Saturday.

Despite this a lot of positives came about from Saturday.

The pack was fairly similar to that turned out and competed for most of the game v Acklam.

However the backs saw a host of changes that had me slightly worried particularly as I saw Pontleand backs run through the moves and look pretty slick.

Prior to kick off we focused on keeping the game tight with the pack limiting Ponteland of possession and when the ball did go out wide attacking only through the midfield.

I thought our pack was tremendous and dominated the game both in attack and defence. It was noted that there were not many runners of 10 but to be fair that was never in our game plan.

The backs were very good with a number of players that stood out: Jamie Cowans and the Younger brothers; Dom and Nelly looking dangerous in attack and aggressive in defence.

We scored regularly throughout the game to establish a 29-8 lead. With 10 or so mins to go Ponteland began an impressive mini comeback but we held out to win 29-20.

Highlights

I've mentioned this a lot but the 2s pack is generally fielding 3-4 colts at any given weekend and Sika who is only 20. It's positive stuff.

Dom Younger's try, good strong straight run through heavy traffic a good old fashioned typical Sunderland Centre's try.

A number of players in the backs who had initially been selected for 3s have put a marker well and truly down that they are at least 2s level and will be for some time if they can keep training.

Defensive structure very good.

Coaches tactical substitutions, perfect timings

Clive was allowed by Martin to actually play another game!

Lowlights:

Senior players doubts regarding the same substitutions, ye of little faith.

Andy Black side stepping captaincy duties

Availability: I appreciate we've all got to work and family commitments will always be a pull but I think we could all try a bit more.

Scorers: Tries; Cogden, Younger, Cowans, Conversions; Stacey (1), Pens; Stacey (4)

MoM: Jamie Sword 17 year old 2nd row good player and impressive leadership.