Thunder rumbled by Crusaders

NEWCASTLE Thunder’s long unbeaten run in Kingstone Press League One was brought to a halt in Wrexham as North Wales Crusaders inflicted a 30-14 loss on Mick Mantelli’s side.

It was a disappointing end to what had looked like being a promising afternoon as Thunder looked to bounce back from their exit in the League One Cup against the same opponents a week earlier.

The visitors crossed the Crusaders’ whitewash four times in the opening 20 minutes of the fixture - though only the last of those counted as the other efforts were chalked off for knock-ons in the build-up and in the act of scoring or for being in front of the kicker.

The score which did count came from Lewis Young running deep from in his own half.

He was the architect of his team’s second score three minutes later as a neat pass out wide to Ali Blair allowed the winger to go over and give Thunder a 8-0 lead.

They went close to extending their lead on two occasions before the half-time hooter.

However, as a week earlier, the Crusaders assumed the advantage early in the second half with a powerful run from Simon Atherton.

It was Atherton who engineered the hosts’ extension of their lead with a neat offload to Tom Johnson for a third converted score.

With 13 minutes left, Thunder halfback Benn Hardcastle’s solo converted try, which saw the club’s record points scorer re-gather his own to score, made it a one-score game.

However, the Crusaders then added two more tries to seal the win.