This was a round robin friendly between Sunderland, Durham and Gateshead played on Sunderland's Ashbrooke pitches. The weather was warm and pitch conditions were good and it made for some excellent rugby. The whole U12s squad came to the game for the 1st time this season though Rob Milbanke couldn't play thru injury. It did mean we at last got a full team photo, see attached. 1st match was between Sunderland and Durham and was a cracker. Both sides played good rugby and Sunderland brought the best performance out of Durham this season. Nathan Dow was playing against his old team mates and was inspired. He eventaully battered his way though a stubborn Sunderland defence to bag his 1st of 4 trys during the day. The 2nd Durham try came fairly quickly with an incisive switch move between James Coxon and Max Weightman allowing Max to score before Nathan got his 2nd try of the half to lead 21-0 at the break. Durham also won the 2nd half 2 trys to 1 but Sunderland showed that they will be a formidable team at this year's County Cup.

Durham could not maintain the same level of performance against Gateshead in the match which quickly followed the Sunderland game. In particular, the forwards tired and were slower into rucks and mauls which allowed more turnover of ball to Gateshead. Durham found themselves defending their try line on a number of occasions which required last ditch tackles and long kicks up field to relieve the pressure. However, they did preserve a clean sheet and won 4 converted trys to nil.

Team:

Forwards
Jamie Adamson, Keiran Avis, Joe Bellis, leo heslop, Adam Hill-Buddington, William Hodgson, Cameron Innes, Billy Marsden, Arthur Mason, Joe Simpson, Oliver Smith, Tom Tyrrell-Edwards, Alex Winter

Backs
James Coxon, Nathan Dow, Declan Egan-Jones, Harry Escott, Nico Goeta, Matt Jackson, Adam Morris, Robert Tomlinson, Max Weightman, Cameron Valence.

2 matches played, 15 minutes each way

Order of score
Match 1 vs Sunderland, 7-35

0-5...Dow
0-7...Coxon
0-12...Weightman
0-14...Coxon
0-19...Dow
0-21...Coxon

Half Time: 0-21

0-26...Adamson
0-28...Coxon
5-28...Sunderland
7-28...Sunderland
7-33...Heslop
7-35...Coxon

Match 2 vs Gateshead, 0-28
0-5...Adamson
0-7...Coxon
0-12...Smith
0-14...Coxon
0-19...Dow
0-21...Coxon

Half Time: 0-21

0-26...Dow
0-28...Dow