ALBURY Thunder has reacted to last weekend’s loss by making a swag of positional changes for Sunday’s clash with Cootamundra at Greenfield Park.
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After going down to Tumut 28-22, coach Tuki Jackson wasted no time turning turning the line-up upside down in a bid to find consistency.
The move of Shannon Rupapare to fullback and Etu Uaisele to the centres was the most notable change.
“Shannon’s a good talker and is quick so we think he’ll be good at the back,” Jackson said.
“Etu is back in the centres where he’ll be more damaging.
“I’ll go to the second-row where I prefer to play and Nathan Wilson comes up from reserve grade.
“He’s obviously played in the Sydney competition and will have no worries stepping up in the halves.
“Ben Taylor will go to the left centre, Levi (Freeman) will go to the right centre. and Jon Huggett goes to the front row.
“We are strong right across the park.”
While Jackson was quick to make changes, he also believes Thunder must be better prepared against Cootamundra.
They trailed 16-6 at half-time against Tumut and, despite rallying late in the match, never hit the lead.
“Our attitude has to be better this week,” he said.
“That’s probably the biggest thing.
“Training has been great both nights this week as we went back to the basics and worked on areas of the game we needed to improve.
“We played well in patches only at Tumut and I want us to start from the kick-off and hopefully put on some points.”
Cootamundra will have to produce a major form reversal to get close to Albury Thunder.
The Bulldogs were hammered 42-16 by Wagga Brothers last weekend and went down to Temora 26-6 the previous round.
Thunder have beaten both those sides this season.
“I want to take each game as if it’s our last,” he said.
“We need to be ready to play.”
In other matches, Temora meet Kangaroos at Nixon Park.
Coach Ben Jeffery will miss another match with a calf injury and the Dragons’ home advantage should prove telling.
Junee will struggle to counter Gundagai, Brothers host ladder leader Young and Tumbarumba face a daunting assignment against Southcity.
The ladder is: Tumut 8, Gundagai 8, Young 6, Southcity 6, Albury Thunder 6, Kangaroos 4, Brothers 4 Junee Diesels 2, Temora 2, Tumbarumba 1, Cootamundra 1.
