Playing only their second competition game, the Thunder boys showed plenty of grit to come back from being down 10-3 at half time to comfortably take the points.

Playing at home, the Clams were always going to be hard to beat, especially after coming off two consecutive losses.

They were aggressive from the start and unsettled the Wauchope team, who struggled to come to terms with the scrappy style of play.

The Clams put on two unconverted tries in the first half, while the Thunder’s only points in the first 40 minutes came from a penalty kick from fly-half Aaron Robinson.

At halftime Thunder coach Marc Minor gave his troops a massive spray and ordered them to keep the ball in hand and build pressure through rolling forward play.

The theory worked as the second half was dominated by the Thunder forwards controlling the ball.

The Clams continued their aggressive style of defence, but poor discipline let them down as they often infringed at the ruck.

Aaron Robinson was the first to take advantage of the Clams rushing defence, with a neat dummy and stepping off his left foot to slide through to score the Thunder’s first try.

The Thunder’s NSW Country Colts representative front rower, Tom Blanch, didn’t bother to step with his try, going straight through flimsy defence.

The Clams were given numerous warnings for killing the ball and hands in the ruck, and were finally made to pay with two players yellow carded.

The Thunder took advantage of the extra players in attack, with Brendan Cunningham coasting through a big gap to score and seal the win for the Wauchope team. Man of the match and players’ player went to Aaron Robinson, with the remaining best and fairest points going to Tom Blanch and Beau Tobler.

This weekend the Thunder host the Gloucester Cockies at Andrews Park. It is also family day and everyone is invited down to enjoy a great afternoon at rugby on the picturesque home of the Thunder.

The Thunder juniors continue to impress playing in the Friday night Port Macquarie Junior Rugby competition. Last week the under 12s backed up for the second straight win, defeating Tacking Point 22-5.

Even though they were short on players the Thunder boys and girls played well as a team and displayed plenty of spirit in the entertaining match. Tom Foster led the way with numerous great front rower charges and was rewarded with two tries. Quinn Pares and Lachy McMurray also grabbed a meat pie each, while Gabbi Foster and Shakira Porter are growing in confidence each week and showing the boys that the girls are just as adept at playing rugby. 

In the under 10s, coach Mark Hill was full of praise for his young charges who he said showed big improvements in their skill levels and teamwork. They went try for try with Tacking Point for most of the game before eventually going down 50-30. Blake Haywood scored three tries, while Landon Darcy, Mika Davis and Aiden Hill each scored a try. Mark said Aliyah-May Niall ran the ball strongly and Kate Brown showed plenty of enthusiasm, while the cleaning out work from the kids has also improved markedly.

The final game of the night was the under 14 Hastings Baa Baas (combined Thunder and Vikings) who had a convincing 45-5 win over the Port Pirates Black boys.