Sunderland Under 15s finally managed to play a game after 3 blank weekends with a visit to Consett. The going was definitely heavy with patches of thick mud which when coupled with the strong cross wind didn't promise an exciting game. However, this turned out not to be the case as both sides contributed to an entertaining game played in an excellent spirit.

The visitors ran in a total of seven tries five of them in a dominant first half display. With man-of-the-match Luke Park pulling the strings at scrum half behind the pack Sunderland controlled possession from the kick off. Excellent work at the breakdown by Elliot Leslie, Joe Cooper, Lewis Snaith and David Handley provided the backs with plenty of quick ball with fly half Matthew Douglass having a particularly good game.

It was however the forwards that engineered the opening score when a scrum against the head by Ewan Stalker provided Number 8 Joe Hodgson the chance to pick and go from 5 metres. He then converted his own try for a 7-0 lead.

Not to be outdone the back line finished off a good break after 15 minutes. Douglass released Miles Fortune whose strong run broke a couple of tackles before releasing Josh Wilson who in turn fed Luke Phillips for an unconverted try in the corner and 12-0.

A rare try for front row Will Sopp soon followed after a period of forward phases inside the home side's 22. He was presented with an easy finish after great work by Drew Hind and the ever busy Leslie.

Sunderland were in control of the game but it required good cover defence by Sam Pickering and Andrew Pears to prevent a couple of Consett breakaway tries, mainly through their strong running centres. And indeed it was the home side that were next on the scoresheet as they finally broke the defensive line for a converted try just before half time.

The second half followed much the same pattern with the visitors rotating the squad there were opportunities for Clayton Walker, Sean Quinn, Louis Dinsdale, Luke Conway and Aaron Curle to make their mark in the forwards and they all made contributions to the performance that resulted in four tries.

There were scores for Josh Wilson, Luke Park, Clayton Walker and a second for Luke Phillips as the visitors made their dominance count. Consett did threaten to rally shortly after the break with a score of their own but Sunderland proved the stronger outfit to finish the day 39-12 winners.

This was an excellent team effort that owed a lot to the continuous communication between the players and their own abilities to make the right decisions in the right areas of the pitch.