Rugby: Sunderland out to maintain upward momentum against Ashington

Last week’s hard-earned 21-20 triumph at Darlington made it four wins in the last five league games.

Sunderland, up to eighth place in the table, see this week’s fixture – against the seventh-top Colliers at Ashbrooke (2.15pm kick-off) – as an opportunity to put distance between them and the bottom half of the table.

A club spokesman said: “We expect a good, physical contest between two teams with capable packs and back lines.

“Potentially, we could name a relatively unchanged side from last week’s victory over Darlington.

“The bottom half of the league is tight so victory is essential. A win could see us move to seventh position with a big points gap to bridge to close in on sixth spot.

“Having played eight of our first 10 games this season as away fixtures, we are looking forward to a run of home games over the coming months at a time that should see players returning from injury for the run-in and cup fixtures.”

Sunderland hope to capitalise on Ashington’s poor away form and reverse the away day defeat earlier in the season, when the Wearsiders’ errors cost them dearly.

The Ashbrooke second string head north to take on Ashington, for a 1pm kick-off.

Sunderland Under-13s took on a much- improved Horden at Hill View last weekend.

Sunderland half-backs Ben Fogg and Alexander Lamb controlled the game from behind the scrum, with Dylan Pool taking charge up front and Dan Riley captaining the side well.

There was some excellent tackling throughout and some of their attacking was a joy to watch.

Sunderland won the game 30-20 thanks to six tries from six different players: Daniel Riley, Daniel Wynn, Alexander Lamb, Harrison Wayman, Kyle Tyrens and Ben Fogg.

Sunderland Under-11s had two games away to Darlington last Sunday.

They lost the first match 35-25, but pulled the second one back to win 25-15.

Sunderland showed some fine attacking play with excellent passing. Owen Jackson, Dan Batters and Will Elwell were among their try scorers.

The Ashbrooke club’s Under-9s played superbly in their two victories against Redcar and Stockton.

Daniel Cassap led the way with a man-of-the-match performance, scoring a number of fantastic tries and producing a superb defensive display.

Kieran Richardson was instrumental in a hard-working defence, backed by all-action performances from James Parkinson and Alfie Rhodes.

Esther Redell, Alex Collinson and Ethan White added to an excellent team display, with tries from Kian Dunn, Ethan Gibson and Luke Ashton setting up the victory.