A Brilliant Display of Grit and Gut

Sunderland III team put their hearts, heads and bodies on the line against a strong, youthful Mowden Park team to come out with a fantastic 20 - 7 home win in the cup against a team that had previously walked over them 2 weeks ago in the league.

The team named was a strong one with only a couple of players not playing in their preferred position. From kick off the ball was expertly kept in the forwards, Dean Marshall and Jossie Wright keeping the ball in possession for long periods and winning brilliant turnover ball in the rucks. The lineouts and scrums were dominated by a pack that were easily two decades older then their opposite numbers! Michael brace and John Grainger combined well in the middle to ensure the game was played Sunderlands way, which meant not much ball for the backs but when they got it they worked hard to gain ground and always cut in to ensure the forwards had time to cover.

The first break came from multiple penatlies by Park meaning the ground was covered before Grainger had a kick at goal, which he scored, and then the game resumed its hard, tight game until a kick through from the back of a ruck deceived the covering Park backs and allowed Dom Wright to sprint on excellently and touch down for the first try, which Grainger comfortably converted.

Park then applied the pressure and would have scored in the corner had not winger Paul Hands and full back Lewis Swann tracked brilliantly to tackle the man and send the ball dead for a kick from the 22. At half time the score was 10-0 to sunderland.

The second half started perfectly for the home side, as some good rucking won the ball against the head, and a clever break allowed D.Wright to push through and score his second try of the game, which grainger converted. Not long after Grainger pulled out the trickery with a drop goal that hit the bar and bounced over to put sunderland 20 - 0 up.

From then Park camped inside the Sunderland 22, with Sunderland giving away silly penatlies, and both sides having at least one player sin binned in the second half. Time and time Park looked set to break the line, but the defense held firm, with two particularly good tackles from Glenn Hurst, from a penalty kick, which won the ball for a brief respite, and Hands, who put his body on the line to tackle a charging forward after he had broken through the lineout.

After much effort Park did run through, the fly half deceiving the line and sprinting in, which was converted. Sunderland saw out the game with some solid defending to end 20 - 7, forward Dean Marshall being quoted to say it was "the best game the team have played in at least 3 seasons.". Roll on round 2!