Ponteland unleashed at last

Ponteland 61 – 14 Sunderland

By Chris Morgan

Ponteland put some much needed breathing space between themselves and the relegation places with a thrashing of crisis hit Sunderland in Saturday’s Durham and Northumberland Division One encounter.

With Sunderland bottom of the league and without a league win all season, Pont were clear favourites going into the match but with only one win in their previous seven games before this and the Wearsiders putting in an encouraging performance at Medicals last week, they could ill afford to be complacent.

Fortunately for the home side, they took advantage of the evident weaknesses in the visiting side to rack up a handsome win, with the majority of points coming in a try-laden first half.

Bright from the outset, Pete Newbigin set up the first try for the home side as he broke smartly before finding Craig Robinson with a neat inside pass who scored under the posts. Michael Mullins converted.

Skipper Richard Moller then showed his own fleet of foot as he danced through the Sunderland defence to score with Mullins again converting.

Ponteland were picking Sunderland apart at will and looked dangerous every time they had the ball in hand. Robinson showed excellent support to Chris Searle on the left wing and then when Mark Kelly picked the ball up at the breakdown he offloaded back to Searle for the winger to score what would be the first of three tries. Within twenty minutes, Ponteland were already 19-0 up.

With brother Will injured on the sidelines and providing support to the Ponteland fanbase with his hip flask of port, Pete was flying the flag on the field for the Newbigin family with some smart breaks, one of which resulted in a try of his own as he battered off the Sunderland defence to score the fourth try of the match.

Straight from the start and Pont were back again with Searle making hay against his poor opposite number as he broke through some weak tackles to score under the posts.

The winger then completed an excellent first half hat-trick as Pont continued to attack down the left. Meanwhile, right winger Leigh Gallon was having such a quiet afternoon that he even found time for a chat with his ex-team mate and this correspondent as he played on a short return from Australia.

Pont went into the break 40-0 up much to the delight of all except Wes Dixon who was having a busy afternoon climbing up and down the ladder to change the scoreboard and whispers among the spectators that Pont could break the century mark did little to better his mood!

Fortunately for Wes, the second half turned out to be less manic than the first and some sloppy play from Ponteland allowed the visitors to register two tries of their own, alongside a further three from the home side.

Support play was once again excellent as replacement Jonny Bennett raced over to score the home side’s seventh try of the match and after Sunderland scored their first reply, Moller registered his own second and Ponteland’s eighth as he bounced through the Wearside defence.

Jack Storey was the last Ponteland player to get in on the act and he ran brilliantly through the defence for a superb individual try to round off the home side’s scoring while Sunderland scored the last try of the game and deserve credit for a spirited second half display when they could have easily let their heads go down.

Tougher challenges will await Ponteland in the rest of the season but with four of their remaining eight matches against teams placed below them, they can go forward into the final straight with confidence of a strong finish.

Ponteland: Kelly, Norris, Coulthard, Harrison, Freer, Mundy, Robinson, McGookin, P. Newbigin, Mullins, Searle, Moller, Storey, Gallon, Shields. Subs: Bennett, S. Walton