Team Sunderland Men’s Rugby Earn Cup Success

 

Team Sunderland’s Men’s Rugby Union team secured their second successive BUCS Northern Conference Shield trophy on Wednesday with a victory over Leeds Men’s 4ths in the final.

An end-to-end match saw Team Sunderland emerge as 32-28 victors after a dramatic finale.

The final was held in Manchester as part of the BUCS Northern Conference Finals Day.

Team Sunderland started poorly as Leeds crossed to score within minutes of the game starting to lead 7-0.

This sparked the team into action as Sunderland responded quickly with a try of their own to reduce Leeds’ advantage to 7-5.

Sunderland dominated the rest of the half with Team Sunderland Elite Athlete Ethan Sutcliffe crashing over to give Sunderland the lead before they scored in the corner with Zach Campbell converting both tries to give Sunderland a 19-7 lead at the break.

Leeds came out flying in the second half and scored a converted try before Campbell responded with a penalty to leave the score 22-14.

Sunderland then extended their advantage with a stunning try from Sutcliffe as he raced clear to score in the corner.

The match continued to ebb and flow with Leeds maximizing their bench and scored two quick tries to give them the lead, heading into the final stages.

Sunderland quickly responded with another try to leave the score 32-28 in Sunderland’s favour with just minutes remaining.

The last few minutes produced an incredible finale with Sunderland using all their defensive might to keep out Leeds and with the final play of the game Leeds knocked the ball on with the line in sight to hand a well-deserved victory to Team Sunderland.

Team Sunderland Men’s Rugby President Harvey Allen said: “Doing it again this year feels as special as the first time last year. We won against Leeds last week and made a lot of mistakes, so we wanted to right those wrongs because we knew they’d be up for it.”

“They didn’t make it easy for us, but we’re a good side that gets into a good rhythm when everything works. We played the basics well and it sounds silly but that’s what you need 100% to get over the line against sides like this.”

“We’ve had setbacks, like all teams, but coming away with the season we have, I’m so proud of every single member of this group.”

For more information about Rugby Union at the University of Sunderland with Team Sunderland please email team@sunderland.ac.uk.