Rovers & City 30 - 30 Sunderland

Sunday February 19th 2012

Durham City & Hartlepool Rovers U10’s 30 v’s 30 Sunderland U10’s

After a long lay off, this being the first games since December 11th, it was great to welcome both Hartlepool Rovers and Sunderland U10’s to Hollow Drift and play a series of round robin games. Unfortunately, Rovers had a depleted squad but still came through and Sunderland had enough for a full squad, so after Rovers playing both the City squads, the final match of the morning comprised a mixed Rovers & City team of 9 v’s the full Sunderland squad, which meant lots of rugby for everybody.

Although the players were showing a bit of tiredness following their previous two games, both squads gave their all in a nip and tuck game that saw the lead swapping on a regular basis. Sunderland took the lead early with Rovers bouncing straight back from the restart, followed by some great tackling and defensive work from both sides, resulting in regular turnovers and two more tries from each side before the break.

The second half started off in a similar vein and as the players started to tire, Sunderland started to dominate going ahead by two scores. However, some great team work by the barbarians side which saw them turn defence into attack and manage to get back into the game and draw level on the final play of the game.

A bit thanks to John Berriman, Jonny Bushnell and Tom Hetherington for teaming up with the spirited Rovers squad and producing a great final game of rugby on the first day back at Hollow Drift in a while.