Rob Stormont selected the strongest team of the season due to many first team players returning, so the likes of Michael Walton and Andrew Wordsworth provided a boost to the squad.

Kicking off on Ashbrooke for the first time this season Sunderland still had to wait until conceding to wake up and start playing rugby, with the Bishop players applying early pressure to force themselves over the try line with brute strength, making the score 0-5.

After this Sunderland upped the performance and effort and the most dangerous back-line listed started to show what they were made of with John Padgett and Gareth Roberts putting the Bishop defence under a lot of pressure. This pressure paid off when Roberts made a break and released Dan Hinder down his wing. Hinder dodged his covering man to touch down between the posts. Walton added the conversion to allow Sunderland to lead 7-5.

Sustained pressure from the forwards in the ruck and the backs handling well resulted in Bishop giving away two kickable penalties. Walton converted one of them and was just wide with another, increasing the gap between the teams to 5 points, 10-5 to Sunderland.

At this point the home side really started to twist the screw. After a brilliant dummy run Padgett drew both his marker and another defender to leave a gap open for Roberts, who ran diagonally through and along the touchline. Just before being bundled into touch the centre chipped the ball over the top, leaving a dead sprint race between Paul Hands and two Bishop defenders. Despite being two metres further behind the covering defenders Hands was most committed and slid over the try line to claim the bouncing ball and score. Walton added the conversion to make the score 17-5 at half time.

A different Bishop team appeared to come out in the second half and Sunderland spent twenty minutes on their own try line. Monumental defending from the entire team, with Adam Reay putting tackle after tackle after tackle in resulted in Bishop getting no points from their sustained pressure. And despite a couple of breaks from Sunderland nothing came to fruition and the score remained 17-5 until the last minute, when Mark Henry, who had been busy all game at scrum half, had a pass unluckily intercepted by a Bishop player who ran in untouched to score, the conversion was added and the game ended 17-12.

Sunderland RFC

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