Sunderland Hosts of the U10 County Cup!

After being drawn on the day, Sunderland were placed in a tough group consisting of Darlington Mowden Park, Middlesbrough and Blaydon. They got off to a brilliant start against Boro and despite going behind the team rallied well and came back to win a very close game 2-1. Some excellent play from Dean Edmundson, Michael holder and Matthew Sanderson in the middle of the park, and brilliant tries from Ben Hutchinson and Ky Horn.

Their second group game saw them up against a much improved Blaydon who took an early lead. Sunderland shuffled their pack to make sure everyone got a good run out and their class told with a great move by Iwan Phillips resulting in a try for Ben Hutchinson. Fletcher Jackson then made a good break to add a second and the scoring was rounded off by a brilliant solo effort from Luke newby.

So two wins from two left Sunderland joint top of the group with their next opponents Darlington Mowden Park who'd also won both games and the winner would progress to the semi finals. Sunderland found Mowden a tough nut to crack and couldnt quite get over their line, and despite some great tackling from Tye Hanlon, Reece Thompson ,Adam Armstrong (who received a nice shiner for his trouble!), and Aidan Wayman, Mowden managed to score two tries. To their credit, Sunderland persevered bagging an excellent late try from Dev Koca who broke through mowdens defence and would not be denied. Unfortunately time ran out and so did sunderlands hopes of reaching the semi finals.

With the Plate still to play for, after finishing runners up in the group, they met Ryton in the plate semi final. Again Sunderland tried to ensure all the lads got a good amount of time on the pitch, and despite some really good play especially from Rowan James they went down 2-1 with another try for Ben Hutchinson .

So this years county cup has gone, but they can take some consolation that the eventual winners were Darlington Mowden Park who only just beat them at the group stage. Some observers said that the only difference between the two sides were that Mowden had the upper hand when it came to rucking, but the camaraderie shown by all the Sunderland lads who stayed to watch the final and had fun in the sun bodes well for the future of a very good squad - maybe next time!

Report by Gary Jackson.

Hats off to all the parents who volunteered to help organise on the day, especially those that missed the boys matches being domestic goddesses....Alan, David etc etc.