ALBURY Thunder paid the price for a disastrous first-half when they went down to Junee 38-32 at Greenfield Park on Sunday.
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After coughing up six tries in the opening 40 minutes to trail 32-10 at half-time, the home team responded to a tongue-lashing from coach Ben Jeffery to storm back into contention.
Riverina forward David Cowhan led the fight-back which fell agonisingly short against the undefeated Diesels.
“You can’t afford to give a top-four team a 22-point lead at half-time,” Jeffery said.
“It’s too hard.
”You have to play some ugly footy where you need to throw it around a bit more than what you would like.
“If can come off and look a million bucks or sometimes some errors creep in.
“All in all it was a great second half.
“I got a good reaction out of the boys at half-time and the pleasing thing is that nobody dropped their heads as it could have blown out to 60 points.”
Junee and Southcity are now the only undefeated teams in the competition while Albury has dropped back to third spot.
Thunder were showing no signs of a poor start when centre Mitch Seaton crossed in the fourth minute, but it soon became ugly as Junee created havoc on the fringes.
The Diesels ran in the next four tries with Daniel Foley, Brad McCarthy and Peter and Stephen Little in the thick of the action.
Thunder halted the onslaught when Jon Huggett scored following a classy Jeffery run but McCarthy and Steve Little followed up to complete a nightmare first half.
The second half was a complete form reversal as Thunder gained the upper hand down the middle and Alex Jones reaped the rewards out wide with three tries.
Jones’s third try cut the deficit to 36-32 with 10 minutes remaining, but the clock and a penalty goal finally sealed Albury’s fate.
Jeffery said it was a “real mixed bag”.
“I thought we were all patchy in the first half,” he said.
“After that it was a collective effort and another 10 minutes would have been nice.
“That’s the way it goes though.
“We showed what we can do in the second-half.”
Junee were without lock Will Merritt after half-time due to a back injury.
Thunder take on Tumbarumba at Tumbarumba on Sunday.
In other matches, Young hammered Tumut 54-4, Southcity edged out Kangaroos 36-26, Temora defeated Cootamundra 34-18 and Brothers accounted for Tumbarumba 30-16.
