ALBURY Thunder coach Ben Jeffery has rated his team’s 28-16 victory over Gundagai as one of the best in his five seasons at the club.
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Trailing 16-4 after 24 minutes, the home team staged a sensational comeback to clinch a memorable win in front of a big crowd at Greenfield Park on Saturday night.
The victory gives Albury a 2-0 win-loss record with home matches against Tumut and Junee ahead.
Jeffery praised his team’s defence for keeping the reigning premier scoreless for almost 55 minutes.
“That’s one of our best wins definitely,” Jeffery said.
“They scored those early points and we didn’t lose our cool.
“We just stuck in there and it turned around.
“Everyone dug deep and I think our hard pre-season helped us run out the game.
“All the boys played their role and really rolled up their sleeves.”
Gundagai made a blinding start through tries to Phil Latu, Dane O’Hehir and Matt Rose before Thunder gained a late shot of confidence when winger Lachie Hampton scored out wide to cut the deficit to 16-10 at half-time.
Hampton was a constant threat to the Tigers’ defence in arguably his best first grade match for the club.
After a tense start to the second-half, Gundagai had a Joel Field try disallowed with referee Bernie Nix ruled a forward pass.
Thunder thrived on the decision with classy halfback Shannon Rupapere levelling the scores in the 60th minute.
Winger Alex Jones put the home team in front for the first time in the 70th before big Joe Silafau capped off a fine performance in the 78th minute to seal victory.
Jeffery said the victory came about through an even spread of contributors.
“I thought it was a real team effort,” he said.
“Gundagai dropped a bit of ball and didn’t play their best footy, but I think that comes down to us putting pressure on as well.
“Last week we came with the wrong attitude against Cootamundra and that was probably the biggest change.
“It’s a good start to the year but there is a long way to go.
“At least we will come away with some belief that when we knuckle down we aren’t a bad side.”
Hampton, hooker Andrew Smith, Silafau and Jon Huggett were outstanding for Thunder.
Field shouldered a big workload for the Tigers with big Vinny Brown spending extended periods on the bench.
Centre Chris Seaton played out the match with a quad injury.
The victory has thrown the premiership race wide open after Gundagai and Southcity were widely regarded as the only teams capable of winning the premiership.
