UNDEFEATED Albury Thunder turned in one of its best performances of the season to crush Kangaroos 74-4 at Wagga’s Equex Centre yesterday.
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While the victory wasn’t unexpected, the margin has sent further shock-waves through the competition and leaves Josh Cale’s charges in the box seat to secure top position on the ladder with seven rounds remaining.
The dangerous Willie Heta created havoc from the opening whistle to mastermind the win, while Ben Jeffery thrived on the phenomenal work rate of teammates Lou Goodwin and Mitch Davis to score three tries.
Henry Heta also scored a hat-trick.
“We had a really good day,” Cale said.
“I thought we started off strongly and moved the ball well and really put pressure on them.
“Kangaroos are a young side rebuilding and the most pleasing thing was that we stuck to our game plan and didn’t just start throwing the ball around trying to score points.”
Albury Thunder piled on the pressure early with only a try to Kangaroo Curtis Wykamp preventing them from taking an unblemished scorecard into half-time.
They led 34-4 at the break and Goodwin and company made their intentions clear that the pain was far from over.
Cale said Thunder had put enormous importance on winning ahead of next weekend’s bye.
“Young is breathing down our neck and we needed to win this game,” he said.
“We treated it as a real danger match.
“The boys have done well and the break will be handy.
“We’ll keep working hard during the week off and make sure we are ready for Southcity at home in a fortnight.”
Kangaroos dangerman Adam Hall was serviceable for the home team but was generally kept under control.
Thunder forward Andrew Cowhan reinjured his shoulder and could be forced to spend several weeks on the sidelines.
In other matches, Brothers caused the upset of the round by toppling Cootamundra 56-24, Young upstaged Gundagai 38-22, Southcity struggled to a 34-28 win over Temora and Junee edged out Tumut 24-16.