Newcastle Thunder v Swinton Lions match thoughts

Sunday afternoon saw a young Newcastle Thunder outfit take on Swinton Lions in Thunder's first League One game of the season.

Here's a few of my thoughts on today's encounter and a couple of other things.

The match

The game kicked off in the last of the sunshine and ended with the fog coming in. It may well have caught a few optimistic out who turned up in shorts! Thunder came out of the blocks hard and this is exactly how we need to be at home. Harry Price was very unlucky to have a try ruled out. The start is exactly how Thunder need to be when teams turn up on Tyneside, physical and let them know they're in for a battle. Thunder played with real heart and you could tell they were playing for each other, working in defence and throwing themselves at any Swinton player running at them. More importantly if a mistake was made a teammate would work for the team.

Swinton were frustrated with their first half, stood near the bench especially in the first quarter you could see Thunder were frustrating them. Alex Donaghy got a nicely taken try when a gap was spotted in the defence, the conversion was made by Donaghy too. Unfortunately for Thunder, Swinton scored a try on the hooter to give them a 6-20 half time lead.

At half time Paul Wood, the Swinton Head Coach decided to go full Phil Brown and keep his team on the pitch. This seemed to work and Swinton started the second half going up a gear, upping the physicality and yes Thunder did fall off tackles for a couple of tries but ultimately Swinton were full value for their victory this afternoon. The final score was 6-48 but arguably Thunder deserved some more points from this afternoon.

The two Harry's worked very hard this afternoon and both carried very well.

The Thunder players thanking the fans at full time.

Other thoughts

I left the house at half-time in the England v Italy game and got to Blaydon for the second half, there does continue to be a warm welcome at Blaydon. Fans not taking in the Six Nations were sat outside in the sun enjoying a drink. In the clubhouse itself there was a good atmosphere with Swinton fans on the pool table and darts board, a lot of fans have been after being a part of a club and this presents a good opportunity to do that.

Final thought

Now this isn't a criticism at anyone. I want to try to understand what barriers are stopping people from coming and supporting Thunder. If through this I can work with people to break any barriers I will. From my perspective, I understand it might not be the easiest sell. But what we have is a group of young lads who are putting their bodies on the line for rugby league in the north east. Although people will look at today's score and think there's another big result. It doesn't show the heart and effort from Thunder, this was a much improved performance and they deserve to have our support.

At Thunder there's a good group of people who care about rugby league and your support would be appreciated. If you're hesitating about coming down, then please do. Likewise, if there's something stopping you from coming, then reach out to the club or myself. I'm keen to understand what can be done to attract people to Thunder.

Next game

Frustratingly, there's another week off next week which will allow some bodies to rest and maybe bring a couple of injuries back. The week after on 23rd March, Thunder make the long trek to Cornwall in what is a big game for both teams.