Sunderland 2s go through to semi finals

First of all a big thanks to Stockton 3s.

Despite our big win, they kept plugging away and when they got the ball attempted to have a go.

I'm not sure why we are in the 3rd team cup this season but we can only play what's in front of us and overall I was pretty impressed by what a lot of players produced.

Our back 5 forwards were probably the strongest combination we've had all season and they duly dominated the game.

This resulted in a concentrated number of tries for Drummond (4), Stevenson (4), Black (3), Finch (2).

To be fair to them it wasn't the usual case of this group being ball greedy (although Black missed some shocking overlaps and blamed it on his hearing).

A lot of our tries saw multiple passes and phases between backs and forwards often covering the full length of the pitch.

Some great running from our young back line saw scores for McNay (2), Little, Hinder and Spoors

Everyone enjoyed some kind of gallop particularly Sika who did some great carries though it looked odd to see him running as I had never seen this before!

We scored regularly but were slowed now and again by Stockton's no. 12 who put in some tremendous tackles.

We finished a bit early and the performance and the result began a great evening with England winning, then a tremendous players dinner.

MoM:

Obviously loads of candidates to pick from but as the coach astutlely noted it was the players who didn't score who were most influential in this match.

James Cogden kept grafting throughout the game which allowed the others to do the glamorous stuff and was rightly awarded MoM status for the day,