Sunderland U14s vs Alnwick

Sunderland U14s travelled away to Northumberland to face the Northumberland county champions Alnwick. This is the first meeting between the two sides and it was a highly anticipated fixture.
Sunderland started quickly and were rewarded with a try in the opening two minutes through Harry Harlow-Stephenson. Sunderland continued to mount pressure following a conversion from Daniel Cassap and Cassap himself went over for the second try and then made the conversion to make it 14-0 after 8 minutes. Alnwick then responded with a sustained period of pressure for 10 minutes and finally went over for a try following a number of phases of play through their forwards and their kicker converted the try to reduce the scoreline to 14-7. Sunderland responded well to the setback and scored a further two tries in the first half through Lewis Saxton in the corner and then a magnificent solo try from Daniel Cassap. Louie Macari converted Cassap's try at the stroke of half-time to take Sunderland's lead to 26-7.
Sunderland raced out of the blocks in the second half and Harry Harlow-Stephenson scored to take the score to 31-7. Ryan Johnson then scored the try of the match, breaking through a number of tackles to score a wonderful solo try from his own half. Further tries from Daniel Cassap and Harry Harlow-Stephenson with conversions from Louie Macari and Harry Harlow-Stephenson took the final score to 50-7.
A superb performance from Sunderland against an excellent Alnwick side, who showed why they are Northumberland county champions. Although the side scored 50 points, the defence were superb and had to weather a lot of pressure in their own third of the pitch, particularly in the first half from the Alnwick forwards and the team demonstrated as a whole a togetherness which got them through a difficult period of the game. Star player went to Daniel Cassap for an overall display in attack and defence whilst scoring a hat trick of tries including excellent solo tries through his skill and pace.
Sunderland head back home to entertain another Northumberland county side in familiar foes Whitley Bay Rockliff.