Another cold, windy day at Hill View saw Sunderland Rfc playing host to Darlington Rfc for the second time this season. With Darlington having pitch congestion at their ground and unable to provide suitable space for the match they saved us the journey south and the match was played in the more familiar setting of Hill View.

The last time these two sides met Sunderland were low on confidence, coming off the back of scoreless defeats against Westoe and Houghton, a disheartening defeat against Darlington Mowden Park and a game called off at short notice the week before against Gateshead. That match ended with a final score of 15-36 to Darlington. Today was an opportunity for this Sunderland team to prove how much a little confidence can do, and how much they’ve really improved this season.

After the forced changes last week against Billingham seemed to work so well Sunderland kept a similar team, and employed a similar strategy this week against Darlington.

Starting Line-up: Prop: Louis Irwin, Hooker: Ben Barnes, Prop: Louis Jones, Second row: Matthew Neville, Second Row: Shaun Donkin-Nunn, Blindside Flanker: Cameron Holder, Openside Flanker: James Savage, No.8 Owen Tyson. Scrum-Half: Owen Charlton, Fly-Half: Alex Tuckwell, Inside Centre: James Graham, Outside Centre: Kristian Steabler, Winger Marcus Taylor, Winger: Adam Charles, Full-Back, Max Houlden

Sunderland started strongly again. Having spent much of this season waking up 15 minutes into games, and 20 points down, Sunderland have really fixed that problem of late. Starting with determination and purpose again this week, they quickly gave the Darlington side an idea of what they were up against. After good phases of attacking rugby and ball retention Sunderland’s forwards won the ball one final time before the backs moved the ball wide. Scrum-half Owen Charlton passed out to fly-half Alex Tuckwell who popped a quick ball to James Graham, playing at 12 again today after the success he had there last week. He carried the ball forward powerfully, the Darlington backs dealt with his undoubted threat well, but his size and strength meant it took both of the centres and their full back to bring him down. James managed to offload the ball from the tackle before the trio of defenders had grounded him. With his offload hitting the supporting run of Kristian Steaber playing at 13, Kristian had to avoid the attentions of the Darlington winger to burst through the gap left in the Darlington defence by James’ strong carrying. Kristian used his pace to avoid any tacklers that might come his way and scored an excellent try under the posts. Sensing this was a game where Sunderland could do well and keen to get on with it Alex Tuckwell took the conversion quickly as a drop goal, opting not to wait for his kicking tee to be brought on, and avoiding the ceremony that accompanies most conversions. His confidence paid off and he secured the extra 2 points.

Sunderland’s second try came quickly after the first, and was almost a carbon copy. James Graham drew the attention of most of the backline, and shipped the ball on to Kristian, who this time had a little more to do as he accelerated around the outside of the winger and cut further outside to outpace to the covering run of the Darlington full-back to score his second try of the day out wide in the 5 metre channel. With the wind high and the kick as wide as it could be this conversion was missed.

Unfortunately after the first 10-15 minutes of play Shaun Donkin-Nunn left the field with an injury to his neck. For safety’s sake he was bundled up in coats to stay warm and laid down flat to keep his head still while he waited for an ambulance to arrive. Fortunately it turned out to be nothing worse than muscle strain and we’ll him see him fighting fit again soon. Matt Dyson stepped in to replace Shaun at second-row.

The half ended with a score of 12-5 in Sunderland’s favour. Sunderland were determined not to let this lead slip as they had done the week before, with what was in fact a larger lead than today. Half-time substitutions saw Adam Charles and Marcus Taylor leave their respective wings to be replaced by Dillon Skea and Ben McCann. Louis Jones left the field to make way for Josh Teal at prop, and Owen Charlton was substituted to give Luke Gallagher a run out at scrum-half.

The second half saw Sunderland maintain the pressure that they had imposed in the first half. Excellent tackling from Ben McCann drew the attention of supporters and coaches, who remarked on how well the new player had mastered what is often rugby’s most difficult skill for new players. Tackling is often a case of mind over matter, Ben showed no fear, and found success keeping his opposite number under wraps and snuffing out a number of Darlington attacks as a result.

Lineouts continued to work in Sunderland’s favour with Louis Irwin winning a number of key lineouts and a couple of well worked set plays from the throw-ins created breaks for James Savage and Owen Tyson.

After one such break from James Savage saw the last ditch tackle made by their full-back, James placed the ball back on the ground. Great support play from James Graham, putting in the effort to get to the tackle from out of the midfield, made sure Savage had support and Graham left himself with little to do. After a clean pick up he stepped around the tackle area and ran over the line for a try under the posts. As before, Alex Tuckwell stepped up to take the conversion as a quick drop-goal and get the game underway again with minimal fuss.

Darlington played back at Sunderland well in the second half. They showed the kind of fighting spirit that we respect, knowing ourselves how difficult it can be to keep going, keep your head high and know that you’re playing good rugby even when things don’t seem to go your way. They made life difficult for us with another couple of tries of their own in the second half, while we made life difficult for ourselves with a second yellow card in as many weeks. This time it was Ben Barnes who had to spend 10 minutes in the sin-bin for an uncharacteristic retaliation. Darlington’s fighting spirit and composure under pressure brought them back to almost draw level with Sunderland at one point in the second half. With the same amount of tries scored and only our superior conversion success in windy conditions keeping us ahead on the scoreboard.

As the supporters had flashbacks to last week where a lead was squandered and a chance for a victory went begging it seemed the Sunderland players had the same thing on their minds, spurring them on in the final stages of the game. Matt Neville and Matt Dyson left the field to be replaced by a new second row partnership of Harry Patterson and Jay Henson. Harry still easing his way back into the game after an injury and Jay relatively new to the game, both players defended well from a couple of Darlington penalty moves in good attacking positions and kept up the hard work of the Sunderland pack on the day, continuing to win scrums, lineouts and compete hard at the breakdown.

The Sunderland team closed the game out well today, and with the forwards winning the ball back from a ruck to the left of the field the ball was passed out to the right, through the hands of Luke Gallagher and Alex Tuckwell and into the hands of James Graham at centre. The Darlington defence having dealt with James well in the first half didn’t hold as firm this time, and James crashed through their back line and over the try line for his second try of the day. Another converted quickly by Alex Tuckwell.

As the game was almost at its close Sunderland won a lineout around the Darlington 22 metre line. The lineout was won well by Louis Irwin, who got the ball straight back to Luke Gallagher at scrum-half. Luke ran a good lateral line and threw a long miss pass, cutting out the dummy-run of Alex Tuckwell and moving the ball wider, sooner, into the hands of James Graham. This prevented the Darlington line from advancing and cutting the space off between the two teams. James now had 10 metres to build up his pace prior to the contact, and having given so much to get back into the game the beleaguered Darlington backs failed to cope with his power and pace for third time that day. He hammered through the defence, carrying defenders with him as he went under the posts for his hat-trick, another under the posts, and another quick drop-goal conversion by Alex Tuckwell making it 4 out of 5 conversions for the day. With that the scoring for the day was done, with a final score of 33-22 in favour of Sunderland.

James Graham was awarded man of the match for his excellent work in attack and defence. Helping to make tries for those around him, playing to the strengths of the team, to his own strengths and the strengths of others. He tackled well all day and made the effort to be where was necessary in support. He made tackles across the opposition’s back line, as well as taking his own tries well. It was an excellent personal performance as part of a great winning team performance.

Sunderland had finally took a lead, and held onto it until the final whistle. The effort these boys have put into training, the improvement they have all made and their willingness to keep on going, keep on trying new things, and to keep on turning up is testament to the character of this Sunderland side. They say that defeat is character building. We’ve built enough character over this season, we’ve character in abundance. We’ve now also got another solid win under our belts and a confidence not seen in these players for a long time. We’ve also got new players contributing well to a large and thriving squad. Add to that, happy players, happy supporters and a team of happy coaches and we have our winning formula.

Well done lads.