CLEOBURY Mortimer have put themselves firmly on the rugby map after sending their Powergen Junior Vase bandwagon steaming into the quarter finals.

Sunderland were the latest victims of all-conquering Cleobury, making the long journey home empty-handed after a 17-12 defeat.

And the Love Lane men have been rewarded with their sixth home tie in a row with a quarter final clash against Old Saltleians on Saturday, February 4.

Club secretary Jon Redfern is expecting another bumper crowd to get behind the town's heroes.

"We got 500 here against Sunderland compared to the 20 we normally get, so we could get even more against Old Salts with them only having to travel from Birmingham.

"We played them in the league a few years ago and they were always a bogey side of ours.

"That's not to say we can't beat them this time because we're in great form and they play at a similar standard to us.

"It's great having another home match and the draws have been kind to us, which is important because our pitch suits our style."

In the other Midlands and North ties Leodiensians take on Aldwinians, while the London/South East and South West section pits Betteshanger against Dorking and London Exiles against Devonport Services.

A huge crowd witnessed the Mortimer men produce a stunning second half showing. Trailing 12-7 at the break Cleobury hit back with 10 unanswered points to record a famous victory.

Having arrived the night before to stay in Hartlebury, Sunderland, rarely beaten in the past two years, showed no signs of travel sickness early on.

Two tries from winger Dan Abraham and a conversion by Richie Holbrough put them in control and they could have had a greater interval lead had their place kicker succeeded with two scorable penalties.

But Cleobury served notice of their intent with a bright spell towards the end of the first half, grabbing a try from Julian Harding and conversion by Allan Shields in between Sunderland's two scores.

Although the Love Lane groundsman had commendably worked around the clock to get the pitch playable, it remained heavy and tacky. If anything, this suited the home side who seized control after the break with the Wearsiders became weary.

Although a couple of penalty kicks from Shields missed the target, the sin-binning of Sunderland prop Alan Ross for inappropriate use of his boot at a ruck did act as a turning point in Cleobury's favour.

They set about bombarding the line and from a forward drive Colin Todd found a gap in the defence and scampered over the line for a try to tie the scores.

This time Shields found his range with the conversion and the crowd roar could surely have been heard for miles around.

At 14-12 up and with 15 minutes to go the hosts got their tactics just right as Sunderland became increasingly desperate. But with their legs tiring on the sticky pitch the visitors were unable to breach the well-drilled home defence.

Instead, when their move from defence broke down on the 22-metre line, the visiting forwards got over eager to re-cycle possession and dived in.

The referee awarded Cleobury their third penalty of the match, which Shields duly dispatched - but only just - to give the Mortimer men some breathing space.

This five-point gap meant Sunderland had to score a try to even tie the game but Cleobury refused to buckle, even when prop Hilton Smith was sin-binned with five minutes left.

Sunderland captain Rob Stormont was also yellow carded, evening the numbers for the final couple of minutes. And Cleobury were able to move play into the middle of the pitch and see out time to record a memorable victory and keep their remarkable success story rolling.