Ashbrooke’s National Cup dreams are over

Despite a battling performance, Sunderland were beaten 38-18 by Northallerton in a National Cup game at Ashbrooke.

The entertaining game saw Sunderland grow in confidence and stature as the game progressed and gave a glimpse of how well they might fayre playing at a higher level than their current Durham and Northumberland Division Two status.

Changes to the squad saw Devram Koca make his first team, with Chris Little and Joe Buckley starting.

Mark Sears was called into squad to provide cover with player-coach Martin Watt, as Ryan Buckley provided front row cover and Cam Meike cover for backs.

Northallerton opened up scoring by working a well executed overlap.

Simple fast hands saw the ball pushed through the backs to score their second minutes later.

A penalty from Ryan pulled back three points.

A well executed move saw Northallerton run the ball in under the posts for 19-3.

A further penalty from Ryan added another three points on 30 minutes, but Northallerton ran in their fourth for the half to end 246 in their favour.

Ryan Buckley came into front row for Kie Hanlon and Cam Meike came into back three for Jason Burke.

Northallerton resumed the scoring, but Sunderland countered and started to enjoy longer periods of possession and began to turn over Northallerton ball, with dominant tackling of Edmundson and poaching of Koca at the breakdown.

Sunderland mauled the ball from a 5 meter lineout, and scrum half Ben Hutchinson was the last man to add his weight and ground the ball.

The pack pushed the resulting scrum back and over the try line for Grant Edmundson to touch down closing the gap to 31-18 with minutes to play.

With a minute to play, Northallerton’s right winger worked into a position on the left to run in the final try of the game and confirm the well deserved victory and move into the latter stages of the competition that offers a final at Twickenham.