Thunder travel to Workington and the play-off race heats up

Sunday afternoon see’s Newcastle Thunder make their second trip of the season to Workington, this time in the Betfred Championship.

Back in March, Thunder won a competitive game 28-12 and a couple of weeks later in the league fixture at Blaydon Thunder came out 38-8 winners.

Workington are unbeaten in their last two games at home beating Keighley and comprehensively beating Hunslet. Thunder need to be on it as they’ve also pushed Oldham all the way a few weeks ago. Despite being in 15th place in the league, Workington is a tough place to go and they have some talent and experience in their ranks. Thunder fans will be well aware of the threat of Evan Lawther, throw in Zarrin Galea and the experience of the likes of Jamie Doran and Steve Scholey with Grant Reid being deployed from the bench. There’s enough to make life difficult for a Thunder side who have been slightly off their best over the last couple of weeks.

I think we could see similar tactics used by Swinton last weekend to slow the game and try and frustrate Thunder. Workington’s fans will get right behind on Sunday, the referee will be reminded fairly regularly to make sure Thunder are onside too!

Thunder are currently on an eight match winning streak and know they have to be better than they have been the last couple of weeks. Last Saturday against Swinton they failed to kill Swinton off in the last quarter. Yes, Swinton slowed the game and tried to get under the skin of Thunder but they come to expect that and I expect no different on Sunday. Thunder will look to improve their accuracy and concentrate on their game not getting pulled into anything else.

With Andy Djeukessi’s form seeing him loaned to York and being the latest Thunder player to be around a Super League squad this season as the players see the benefit of the performance pathway, there’ll be a reshuffle. 

Brad Ward, Ryan Jackson and George Birch all come in and Will Dagger comes back on loan after making an appearance in our first game of the season at Midlands Hurricanes. Jack Smith misses out this week, Justin Sangare is named in the York squad. Tom Inman, Cody Hunter and Andy Djeukessi are all on loan to York showing the pathway is there for this squad to have a shot at Super League.

Will Roberts has become key for Thunder in recent weeks and has really stepped up, Taylor Pemberton looks to be out for the season having had an operation and Will has stepped up to captain the side and being the only fit regular half too. He’s shown great maturity and touches of class to steer the ship. He becomes key especially as we’ve seen the opposition target him in recent matches. The likes of Brenden Santi, Mitch Clark, Bailey Antrobus and King Vuniyayawa also become key as we have four games to go to chase second place. A trip to Workington prepares the team nicely for two more away trips in the regular season and the experienced players in the squad become key to keeping things cool.

Squads

Workington Town: 1. Zarrin Galea, 2. Oscar Doran, 3. Rio-Osayonwambo Corkill, 4. Braden Leigh, 6. Jake Carter, 7. Dom Wear, 8. Ross Ainley, 9. Jamie Doran, 10. Steve Scholey, 11. Mason Lewthwaite, 13. Jack Stephenson, 14. Callum Phillips, 15. Callum Farrer, 17. Lucas Castle, 20. Tyce Walmsley, 21. Evan Lawther, 22. Tanna Featherstone, 24. Grant Reid, 25. Bear Williams, 26. Tuarae Rawhiti, 28. Jack Ainley.

Newcastle Thunder: 1. Myles Harrison, 3. Joe Law, 4. Jude Ferreira, 5. Brad Ward, 7. Will Roberts, 8. Bailey Antrobus, 10. Ryan Jackson, 11. Harvey Reynolds, 12. Noah Whittingham, 15. Brenden Santi, 17. King Vuniyayawa, 18. Ukuma Ta’ai,  20. Mitch Clark (loan), 21. Will Dagger (loan) 22. John Sagaga (loan), 27. Jordan Lipp (loan), 33. Alfie Horwell (loan) 34. George Birch.

Referee: F. Lincoln

Reserve Referee: A. Marsh

Touch Judge 1: J. Callaghan

Touch Judge 2: J. Jaundrell

Venue: Derwent Park

Kick off: 15:00

Betfred Championship:

Barrow Raiders v Rochdale Hornets (home win)

Midlands Hurricanes v Keighley (home win)

Swinton Lions v Batley Bulldogs (home win)

Dewsbury Rams v Hunslet (away win)

Doncaster v Oldham (away win)

North Wales Crusaders v Goole Vikings (away win)

Sheffield Eagles v Halifax Panthers (home win)

Widnes Vikings v London Broncos (away win)

Workington Town v Newcastle Thunder (away win)

The regular league season’s into the home straight now and it all starts at Barrow on Saturday night where I expect a comfortable home win over Rochdale, Barrow know a win will more than likely take them back into fourth with Widnes playing London.

Midlands host Keighley on Sunday with the visitors playing their third game of the week due to pitch problems at Cougar Park. Midlands look fairly set in eighth place and a play-off place for them would be a good return in their first season at this level. I think they’ll win this one against a Keighley side that has put some miles in over the week. Swinton host Batley and if Swinton put in a performance like they did in the last quarter against Thunder on Saturday they could edge this. Batley will be desperate for a win as the race for ninth and tenth and the final play-off spot is very close, I’m going to back Swinton at home here just.

Dewsbury are another team having to play midweek, they fell foul of the Cougar Park pitch and their fixtures suffer the consequences. Hunslet will be fresher and I think that could be the difference on Sunday. The game of the weekend is at Doncaster on Sunday as they host an Oldham side on a fine run of form, this will have a real play-off feel to it and will be physical! I know Oldham will have to lose at some point but I think they’ll take this one at the weekend. 

North Wales host Goole in what should be a comfortable victory for the Vikings against a side who continues to have the well wishes of the rest of the clubs. Sheffield will be pushed all the way by Halifax but Sheffield will know a win guarantees them play-off rugby and I think they’ll get the job done. 

Widnes host London in a possible dress rehearsal for the 1895 Cup final although that’s been cast into doubt as Widnes have quite rightly criticised the scheduling. London will win this, Widnes will make them work though. Finally, Newcastle travel to Workington. Despite league positions, Workington is a difficult place to go as Oldham have found out but Thunder should have enough to keep their winning run going.