Sunderland II 24 Ryton II 23

Ryton seconds were the visitors and despite the heavy rainfall overnight the Ashbrooke pitch was passed playable.

Sunderland took the game to Ryton from the off and some strong running from guest for the day Matt Goforth saw him bump off numerous tacklers and race away to open the days scoring.

Ryton came back into the game with a penalty before Liam Simpson extended Sunderlands lead wit a fine run from the half way line dummying one defender before sprinting away to score.

If Sunderland thought they were in for a comfortable victory Ryton had other ideas. Two Ryton penalties and a try of their own just before half time saw Ryton sneak into the lead at 13-12.

In the second half Andy Mackie gave Sunderland the lead when he bounced off a number of tacklers to power over from close range.

Sunderland however endeavoured to make things difficult for themselves when slack defending allowed the Ryton scrum half to pick from the base of the scrum and race 60m without being touched by a single Sunderland defender. The conversion gave Ryton a 20 points to 19 lead.

As the clock was ticking down Sunderland were awarded a kickable penalty 7m out but as their scrum had been so dominant they opted for the scrum and were rewarded when Andy Mackie powered over for his second try of the game.

Ryton kicked a penalty to set up a nerve jangling finish but Sunderland held on to win 24 - 23.

Sunderland thirds turned up at Houghton to find that the home team only had nine players. With Sunderland travelling with a large squad they loaned a number players to ensure the game went ahead.

Sunderland went on to dominate the game with youngster Danny Hinder continuing to impress with another three tries. Sunderlands other tries came from Fish, Wright, Graham, Simpson and Swann. John Grainger kicked two conversions with Hinder and Swann kicking one conversion each.

The final score was 48-12 in Sunderlands favour.