Newcastle Thunder v Batley Bulldogs

Sunday afternoon sees Newcastle Thunder welcome Batley Bulldogs to Crow Trees in round 2 of The Challenge Cup.

I'll start off by saying I have a lot of respect for what Batley do as a club, they're well run on and off the pitch and live within their means. With that they have a strong squad of players who have done it week in, week out at Championship level. This includes former Thunder man Josh Woods who will look to steer his team to victory on Sunday afternoon. They describe it as a long trip up to the north east, but in reality it's just up the road!

Batley managed a home pre-season friendly last week against Midlands Hurricanes where they lost out 30-34 in an entertaining game. They did rest some key players and travel to the north east fully loaded wanting to avoid a cupset.

As for Newcastle Thunder, both pre-season friendlies at Keighley and Bradford have been cancelled due to the weather. Chris Thorman has said that he will use this game and next week against North Wales as trial games due to the lack of game time for his young squad. Throw in the league doesn't start until 9th March and it is difficult for community and League One clubs at this very early stage of the season, so this is a sensible approach.

Thunder will look to the likes of Evan Lawther and Alex Donaghy to guide the young team especially in the early games before they see any dual registration players arrive from Hunslet and Bradford. Chris Thorman will look to see things the team has been working on in training coming off on the pitch and improvement. The result will be what it is and Batley being an experienced, battle hardened Championship outfit has them as strong favourites.

For Thunder fans coming along tomorrow afternoon, it's a clean slate at Blaydon. Turn up, make some noise and get behind Chris and the team. If there's feedback on anything you want to see improved off the pitch then by all means leave something in the comments or I can be contacted on X @_PhilWorld or Instagram worldphil and I'll feed anything back. I know the club wants people to feel welcome and if there is anything that can be done to improve things we can ask the questions but just bear in mind there's no sugar daddy just a group of fans who care about rugby league.

Kick off on Sunday afternoon is 15:00 with tickets available online and on the day £15 for adults and £5 for under 18s. If you can pre-book it helps the volunteers plan a bit. Get there early and getr behind the team. Bring on tomorrow!