A determined and relentless Novocastrians side pulled together from shirts 1-18 on Saturday bracing and pushing back what felt like a never-ending Sunderland attack, at one point in the day being reduced to only 11 players on the pitch.

After being presented with 4 yellow cards in around a 20 minute time-frame mostly for technical infringements around either the ruck or scrum , we somehow found ourselves down to 11 men after being forced to take the game to uncontested scrums as a result of a second yellow to Tom Taylorand an injury to hooker Ben Rodgers.

What ensued however was nothing short of heroic from the Benton men. Against all odds each player stepped up to shut the door on relenting pressure on our 5 metre line. At one point, even taking a series of tap and go's to force our way inside the opposition half. But, shortly after, despite the incredible goal line defence shown, what felt like the 100th scrum was awarded 5 metres out from our line. What we thought was to be a slip from Tom Taylor, was deemed deliberate by our referee and a penalty try from a scrum penalty was awarded despite our best efforts. As the rules state, if a penalty try is given a yellow card must be produced and Tom Taylor left the field. A little while later, upon realising that it was an unfortunate second technical foul for our prop the referee approached the touchline and brandished a devastating red card.

The players remaining on the pitch put their bodies on the line to close out a dramatic first half before sending the ball into touch to round off the half somehow only 7 - 0 down. We regathered and took a breath with the coaches, and, after a lengthy discussion between both sets of coaches with the officials the second half got underway as we set ourselves to receive with a slightly more comfortable 14 men on the field.

It would be our opponents who would snatch the first score of the half however. Some solid defence held out until a grubber from their 10 sneaked it's way through our line for them to touchdown. An unlucky bounce of the ball in the corner despite the best efforts of Max Cook being inches away from making a try saving stop.

The boys clearly wouldn't lie down without a fight however, returning the fire straight back from the kick off. Theo Mouille who came off the bench for the second 40 made a big impact straight from restart, him and George Jowitt hitting their biggest ball carrier with everything they had and forcing a turnover 40 metres out from their line, and, after 50 minutes we had our first opportunity of the game. 19 phases later, with a man down and continuously knocking on the door, the gap opened up. Flanker Simeon Archibald was fed in the corner from debutant Alex Donaghy to bring the score to within 7. Michael Searle would hit the conversion to bring the gap down to 5.

Unfortunately, we weren't on the right end of a couple of scores, another score out wide in the corner was awarded despite the ball spilling out of the Sunderland's players grasp and a penalty extended the home side's lead to 13 points. By the time 80 minutes came around the game was out of our hands, but getting a losing bonus point wasn’t.

Up the field we worked, inching closer and closer to the try line, some excellent play from Harry Tankard to break the line twice at set piece despite us having had to sacrifice a back into the uncontested scrum. Eventually Sunderland strayed offside and after chipping away, Rob Baldwin bundled under the sticks to score. The conversion was easily slotted by Michael Searle and the full time whistle went.

Full Time: Novocastrians 14 - 20 Sunderland.

Not the result we were looking for coming into this fixture, but despite the many setbacks and hills to climb both before and during the game, a losing bonus point in one of the trickiest places to travel to in this league is nothing to be disappointed by for the players involved.

Some huge performances by the pack defensively to stop several 5m line out drives as well as carry relentlessly despite being outnumbered. George Jowitt was at his combative best and has been a great new signing. In addition, it was great to see Alex Donaghy make his debut - the Newcastle Thunder player has not played rugby for several years but looked great in the Novos shirt and got an assist in his first game.

Next week we have Horden at home as another unbeaten side arrives at Fortress Vos. The boys are excited to welcome them to Sutherland Park as they try to get wins over Horden and Hartlepool at home. Two wins would set up a home game against Ryton in our attempt to go unbeaten at home for 12 months.

Up the Vos !