SUNDERLAND START TO REAP THE REWARDS
Sunderland fielded three senior sides on Saturday and all three chalked up convincing wins, showing the club’s development plans are starting to reap rewards.
The First XV faced their third away fixture at Darlington, Second XV were away at Westoe South Shields and the Third XV were away to Jarrovians.
The first team squad remained unchanged from last week's emphatic victory over Whitby and a reshuffle saw Brad Wall start in the pack and Harry Price start on the wing coaches elected to rotate and manage their players. Darlington pushed Sunderland hard in the opening minutes that saw the game played at a frantic rate.
From a lineout, Darlington retained their ball and the pack played their phases driving home the opening try.
Sunderland withstood further pressure and eventually cleared their lines after electing to take the harder option to run the ball out, whilst the opposition legs were still fresh.
Sunderland opened their account when Watt picked and went from a scrum finding Joe Arrowsmith and his determined running and ball retention allowed a ruck to be formed.
A Lou Groark pass saw Marc Edmundson weave his way in to score, converted by Leon Ryan.
Two almost carbon copy tries followed in quick succession. Brad Wall got behind Darlington after picking and going at breakdown making 30 yards down right channel before setting Watt away, who took the ball on a further 20 yards before finding Harry Price in close support to apply the finish, converted by Ryan.
Minutes later, Andy Wordsworth offloaded to Ryan, who then found Kie Hanlon in support to go around the winger for another well worked try, converted by Ryan to give Sunderland a 21-5 half-time lead.
Darlington opened up the second half scoring after just eight minutes of play.
Sunderland responded with a relentless onslaught of attacking pressure with scores coming thick and fast.
Jack Meredith finished a period of phases, while Farai Chikimbirikie, fresh off the bench, blasted through midfield.
Leon Ryan capitalised after Liam Evans broke the gain line and the ball went through hand to pick him out to crash into 22m area and around last defender to ground under the posts.
Harry Price broke Darlington’s hearts when combining with Marc Edmondson, Cam Toole and Dean Edmundson put ball through hands to give Price a simple run in.
Lou Groark scored Sunderland's final try, again being picked out as a support runner to dive in out wide right for Ryan to convert.
Darlington scored the final points of the game with a conveyed try.
The biggest cheer of the day, however, was reserved for post match awards as Darlington, their supporters and the wider rugby family shared the fantastic news that one of their Under-12 players, who had formed the guard of honour for both clubs, could return to training after overcoming a battle with cancer.